Running News Daily

Edna Kiplagat to fight for top honors at NYC Half Marathon

Double world marathon champion, Edna Kiplagat will lead a stellar team of deep elite women at the 18th edition of the New York City Half Marathon scheduled for Sunday (17) in New York City.

The 44 year-old who is the oldest athlete to grace this event, comes to this race with the second fastest time on paper of 1:07.52 that she got last year at the Houston Half Marathon.

Kiplagat who is also a four time world major marathon winner will have to get past the two-time U.S. Olympian and Boston Marathon winner Des Linden and Rio Olympics 1500m bronze medallist, Jenny Simpson.

Other title contenders include former European 10,000m bronze medallist, Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, who is also the fastest athlete on paper with a time of 1:07.34, world marathon bronze medallist, Fatima Gardadi, and Canadian marathon record holder Malindi Elmore.

The race organisers have assembled this strong team to target the race course record of 1:07.35 set eight years ago by Molly Huddle of United States.

LEADING TIME

21KM WOMEN

Karoline Grøvdal (NOR) 1:07.34

Edna Kiplagat      (KEN) 1:07.52

Malindi Elmore    (CAN) 1:10.11

Des Linden           (USA) 1:10.34

Jenny Simpson     (USA) 1:10.35

Fatima Gardadi    (MOR)1:10.28

Mary Ngugi, Emmanuel Wafula dazzle at 49th Roma-Ostia half marathon

Kenyans dominated the 49th Roma-Ostia Half Marathon, with victories in both men's and women's categories on Sunday.

Former world half marathon silver medalist, Mary Wacera Ngugi, showcased her enduring class and resolve by clinching victory at the 49th edition of the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon held on Sunday in Rome, Italy.

At 35, the seasoned athlete, who also holds the title of 2021 Boston Marathon silver medalist, entered the race with a personal best of 1:06.29, recorded eight years ago at the Houston Half Marathon. 

Ngugi outpaced her rivals to secure top honors with a commendable time of 1:07.38.

Caroline Korir rounded out the top three, crossing the finish line in 1:09.01, and solidifying the podium positions. 

Ngugi’s victory is not just a personal achievement but also a testament to her commitment to nurturing young talent through her initiative, the Nala Track Club. 

Based in her hometown of Nyahururu, the club aims to empower young girls by providing them with opportunities to engage in athletics, thereby fostering a new generation of champions.

In the men’s category, the competition was equally intense, with Kenya’s Emmanuel Wafula emerging victorious in his debut over the distance, clocking an impressive time of 1:01.10. 

The race was a nail-biter until the very end, with Ethiopia's Yegzaw Bayelign finishing a mere one second behind Wafula. 

Kenyan Kimakal Kipsambu secured the third spot with a time of 1:01.20, while compatriot Asbel Kiplimo finished fourth in 1:02.57.

Cooper Teare And Weini Kelati Win 2024 USATF Cross Country Titles

Weini Kelati and Cooper Teare earned convincing victories at the 2024 USATF Cross Country Championships, held on Saturday at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va. Running just six days after setting an American record in the half marathon in Houston, Kelati took off just after 4k and destroyed the field, running 32:58.6 for the 10k course to win by 37.3 seconds — the largest margin of victory since Aliphine Tuliamuk‘s 48.2 in 2017.

Teare took a different approach, staying patient as former University of Colorado runner turned Olympic triathlete Morgan Pearson pushed the pace during the second half of the race. Teare was the only one to go with Pearson’s move at 8k and made a strong move of his own at 9k that allowed him to cruise to victory in 29:06.5. 2020 champion Anthony Rotich of the US Army was 2nd in 29:11.6 as Pearson hung on for 4th. Teare’s training partner Cole Hocker was 12th in 29:52.3.

The top six finishers in each raced earned the right to represent Team USA at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30. Kelati’s coach/agent Stephen Haas told LetsRun last week that Kelati plans to run there while Teare’s agent Isaya Okwiya said Teare’s plans are still TBD.

High school junior Zariel Macchia of Shirley, N.Y., won the women’s U20 race in 20:31.0 for the 6k course; Macchia previously won the title as a freshman in 2022. Notre Dame freshman Kevin Sanchez won the men’s U20 title in 24:07.1 for the 8k course.

Cooper Teare shows his range with impressive victory

Teare was the 2021 NCAA 5,000m champion at the University of Oregon and has shown that his range extends both up and down the distance spectrum. Teare is the NCAA mile record holder at 3:50.39 and was the 2022 US champion at 1500 and now he is the US cross country champion. That sort of range has become increasingly common on the international level but in the US, it’s rare for a 1500 guy to run USA XC, let alone win it. Teare is the first man to win US titles at both 1500 meters and cross country since John Mason in 1968, and even that comes with a caveat as the US championships were separate from the Olympic Trials back then. Before Mason, the last guy to win both was Abel Kiviat (cross country in 1913, US mile title in 1914). You all remember him.

On the women’s side, Shelby Houlihan, since banned for a doping violation, won USA XC and the US 1500 title back in 2019.

Teare’s coach Ben Thomas told Carrie Tollefson, who was calling the race for USATF.TV, that the aim of this race was just to see where his fitness was at against a top field. Clearly, it’s very good. In his first race since leaving the Bowerman Track Club after the 2023 season, Teare, wearing a bright pink undershirt beneath his Nike singlet, ran with the lead pack until Morgan Pearson began to string things out just before entering the final 2k loop. As opposed to Pearson, who was giving it all he could to drop the field, Teare looked relaxed and in control, and at 9k he eased past Pearson into the lead before dropping the hammer to win comfortably. It was a smart run and an impressive display of fitness.

Teare may also have slayed some demons from his last cross country race in 2021, when he crawled across the finish line in the final meters. Now he’s gone from 247th at NCAA XC to a national champion.

Teare’s plans for the rest of the winter are up in the air. He will run in a stacked 2-mile at Millrose on February 11 against the likes of Grant Fisher and Josh Kerr before competing at USA Indoors a week later. World Indoors could be an option if he makes the team — as could World XC, if he wants it. No matter what he chooses, Saturday’s run was a great way for Teare to kick off the Olympic year.

Weini Kelati demolishes the competition

On paper, Kelati, who runs for Under Armour’s Dark Sky Distance team in Flagstaff, was the class of this field. The only question was whether she would be recovered from racing hard at last weekend’s Houston Half Marathon, where she set the American record of 66:25. The answer was a definitive “yes” as Kelati, after running with the leaders for the first 4k, dropped a 3:05 5th kilometer to break open the field. From there, her lead would only grow to the finish line as she won by a massive 37.3 seconds over runner-up Emma Hurley.

Kelati was not at her best heading into last year’s World XC in Australia as she had missed some time in the buildup due to injury. She still managed to finish a respectable 21st overall. Her aims will be much higher for this year’s edition in Belgrade.

Kelati also made some history with her win today. She’s the first woman to win Foot Locker, NCAA, and USA cross country titles.

47-Year-Old Marathoner to Run Fifth Olympic Trials

Dot McMahan qualified with a 2:35:20 at Grandma’s Marathon, averaging 5:56 per mile pace. 

In the closing miles of the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon, last June in Duluth, Minnesota, Dot McMahan struggled to calculate how close she was to the Olympic Marathon Trials standard. 

“I was just trying to run under 2:37, but you know, math, when you’re running a marathon, isn’t always so good,” she said. 

McMahan was more than fine. In her 20th marathon, she ran 2:35:20, smashing the standard and qualifying for her fifth Olympic Marathon Trials. 

Her coach, Kevin Hanson, of Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, was ecstatic. And so was her husband, Tim, and their 14-year-old daughter, El, who is also a runner. El told her mom when they FaceTimed after the race that she had run her fastest time since turning 40. “She knew all my stats,” McMahan said. “She was over the moon.” 

McMahan, 47, and Des Linden, 40, are thought to be the only female athletes in the field running a fifth marathon trials. McMahan is the oldest women’s qualifier. On the men’s side, Fernando Cabada, 41, has qualified for five marathon trials and is entered in the race. Abdi Abdirahman, a five-time Olympian, is also 47, the oldest in the men’s field. 

It was never a given that McMahan would make a fifth trials, especially after USA Track & Field announced in late 2021 the tougher entry standards for the 2024 race. For the 2020 race, held in Atlanta, women had to run 2:45 to make the Trials. This time around, they had to be 8 minutes faster. 

“I was very supportive of the fact that they needed to make it quicker, for the women, at least,” she said. “It kind of loses its luster if we make it too easy. That said, I think it was a little harder than I [predicted], which was maybe 2:40, 2:39. So 2:37 was like, woah, okay, we’ve got a real goal here. I never assumed that was going to be a walk in the park.” 

McMahan, who was eighth at the Trials in 2008 and ninth in 2012, knows she’s unlikely to finish that close to the front again, unless something unexpected happens in Orlando. While her teammates have moved to Orlando for the month to prepare for potential heat and humidity, McMahan is still training in Rochester Hills, Michigan, where she works as an assistant track coach at nearby Oakland University and has a pet sitting business. (She’s also an online coach with McKirdy Trained.)

And she wants to be home with her family. McMahan’s only warm weather preparations at the moment are the occasional treadmill run. “It’s in a space that we can enclose a little more and turn the heat up,” she said. But simulating humidity “gets a little tricky. You don’t want to grow a bunch of mold in your house.”

That’s typical of the practicality McMahan brings to her training. Her longevity, she says, is a function of doing most of the same hard work she’s always done. She’ll reach 105–110 miles per week at her peak training for a marathon, and she’ll double three or four days per week. She used to run 120. 

“I’ve tapered back a little bit, but I’m still doing the majority of it,” she said of the Hansons-Brooks training. “That’s what it takes.” On January 14, McMahan ran the Houston Half Marathon as a tuneup and finished in 1:16:02, averaging 5:48 pace. She was very happy with the result. 

Hanson said he and McMahan frequently joke that she’s old enough to be the mother to some of the athletes on the team who are fresh out of college. But he notes McMahan’s durability. She has avoided serious injuries. “That’s what becomes career-ending in your 40s,” he said. “In your late 40s, any injury that sets you back sometimes ends things, because it’s just to hard to get back into it.” 

McMahan is practical about other matters, too. 

For one, she refuses to dye her hair. “I do have a considerable amount of gray hair,” she said. “I’m not doing anything about it; I’m just going to let it come in.” Plus, she said, her husband has gray hair. They’d look silly together if she dyed her hair and he didn’t. “We’re aging,” she said. “It’s just life.”

She devotes about an hour to getting ready for her morning runs—warming up, doing mobility exercises, and “making sure things are firing.”

When her pace slows on afternoon recovery runs, she doesn’t dwell on it. On December 26, she did a hard 20-miler. The next day, she was tired, and she had 10 miles in the morning, and 4 miles in the afternoon on the schedule. She did those runs, but she ran them slowly—for her. 

“I think in the past, I would have beat myself up mentally looking at my watch and being like, ‘You’re running 8-minute pace; this is so ridiculous,’” she said. 

Now, she thinks: Are you happy? Are you healthy? Does anything hurt? This is what recovery pace is for you. “I listen to my body, and I don’t get upset thinking it should be a certain pace,” she said. “That’s my concession to age.” 

Age is not a problem for me, insists 44-year-old marathoner Edna Kiplagat

44-year-old Edna Kiplagat has insisted that age is not an issue as she plans to continue conquering the world of marathon running.

Two-time Boston Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat does not see her age as an obstacle to her achieving her goals in life.

Kiplagat’s age has caught many by surprise, owing to the fact that she is still able to run well and finish races, especially the marathons. Speaking during a press conference before the Houston Half Marathon last weekend, the 44-year-old insisted that she does not view her age as a problem.

She added that the reason why she keeps going is to be a source of encouragement to young runners and her children too. The 2014 London Marathon champion explained that she wants youngsters to understand that anything is possible as long as they put their minds to it.

“I believe that what I have done or accomplished before is going to motivate most of the young athletes. I want them to know that if they work hard and focus on anything they are passionate about, then they will achieve their goals.

"I don’t feel that age is a huge factor for me but I know that as long as I feel healthy and I love what I do, I’ll keep on doing my best,” Kiplagat said.

Meanwhile, Kiplagat has been in the game for more than 25 years since she made her professional debut at the 1996 World Junior Championships where she bagged silver in the 3000m. The American-based athlete then proceeded to bag a bronze medal at the 1998 World Junior Championships.

Since then, Kiplagat just kept and she became the first woman to successfully retain her marathon world title.

She won the marathon title at both the 2011 and 2013 World Championships held in Daegu, South Korea and Moscow, Russia respectively. In 2010, Kiplagat bagged the New York City Marathon and Los Angeles Marathon titles.

Ethiopians Jemal Yimer (60:42) and Sutume Kebede (64:37) won the overall titles in Houston Half

In what is becoming an annual tradition, Weini Kelati ran 66:25 on Sunday to break the American record at the 2024 Aramco Houston Half Marathon. It was the third straight year the record was broken in Houston as the 27-year-old Kelati, making her half marathon debut, followed in the footsteps of Sara Hall (67:15 in 2022) and Emily Sisson (66:52 in 2023) to become a record-breaker in Houston. Sunday marked the third time the record had been broken in the past year as Keira D’Amatolowered Sisson’s record to 66:39 at the Asics Half Marathon in Australia in July.

Kelati finished 4th overall as Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede, a late addition to the women’s field, upset Hellen Obiri to win in 64:37, a US all-comers record that moves her into a tie for 9th on the all-time list. The time was a pb of more than three minutes for Kebede, who was previously best known for finishing 3rd at the 2020 Tokyo Marathon and running 2:18:12 at the 2022 Seoul Marathon. Obiri, who was with Kebede through 10k (30:28) faded over the second half and wound up a distant 2nd in 66:07.

The men’s race came down to a five-man sprint finish with Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer, who won in Houston in 2020 and was 4th at the World Half Marathon Championships in October, prevailing in 60:42. Wesley Kiptoo of NAZ Elite and Kenya was 2nd for the second straight year in 60:43 with 2022 champ Milkesa Mengeshaof Ethiopia 3rd in 60:45.

Biya Simbassa was the top American man in 60:45 in 4th, just ahead of a resurgent Diego Estrada, who led for the first 20 minutes and finished 5th in a pb of 60:49. Galen Rupp, tuning up for the Olympic Marathon Trials three weeks from now, hung back from the leaders and finished 14th in 62:37.

In the Chevron Houston Marathon, contested simultaneously, former NAIA star Zouhair Talbi of Morocco won the men’s race in 2:06:39 to boost his chances of Olympic selection. 2016 NCAA XC champion Patrick Tiernan, now training as part of Alistair and Amy Cragg’s Puma Elite Running team in North Carolina, was 4th in 2:07:45, hitting the Olympic standard and moving to #2 on the all-time Australian marathon list.

Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa, the runner-up behind American Betsy Saina in September’s Sydney Marathon, won the women’s marathon in Houston in 2:19:33.

The races featured temperatures in the low 40s with 10 mph winds and gusts up to 17 mph, which made for a challenging end to the half marathon as miles 9, 10, and 11 were run directly into the teeth of the wind.

Below, six takeaways from the day’s racing in Houston.

2024 Houston Half Marathon men’s top 51. 60:42 Jemal Yimer, Ethiopia2. 60:43 Wesley Kiptoo, Kenya3. 60:45 Milkesa Mengesha, Ethiopia4. 60:45 Biya Simbassa, USA5. 60:49 Diego Estrada, USA14. 62:37 Galen Rupp, USA

2024 Houston Half Marathon women’s top 51. 64:37 Sutume Kebede, Ethiopia2. 66:07 Hellen Obiri, Kenya3. 66:24 Buze Diriba, Ethiopia4. 66:25 AR Weini Kelati, USA5. 67:36 Mestawut Fikir, Ethiopia

Moh Ahmed withdraws from Houston Half Marathon due to hamstring injury

Moh Ahmed’s debut in the half-marathon will have to wait. He has withdrawn from this Sunday’s Aramco Houston Half Marathon after suffering a hamstring injury in his final tune-up workout.

“I am regretfully withdrawing from the Aramco Houston Half Marathon. In my final tune-up workout on Wednesday, I tweaked my hamstring/hip flexor a bit, such that my coach, Jerry Schumacher, and I felt it would be unwise to line up on Sunday,” said Ahmed in a statement Thursday.

Ahmed’s half-marathon debut was highly anticipated, given his Canadian records in the 5,000m and 10,000m on the track. He is the only Canadian distance runner to have medalled in the men’s 5,000m event at an Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020).

“After a great few months of training, I was really looking forward to testing myself over the streets of Houston against a great field, but it will have to wait until next year,” said Ahmed. Outside of a few local road races and winning the Canadian men’s 10K title last year, he has not raced the 21.1 or 42.2 km distance.

Rory Linkletter will be the lone Canadian athlete in the men’s elite half-marathon field. Linkletter is racing in Houston in preparation for the Sevilla Marathon on Feb. 18, aiming for the Olympic standard of 2:08:10. His personal best of 61:08 was set at this race in 2022 (a Canadian national record at the time). Ljnkletter’s PB is only 50 seconds behind the Canadian half marathon record of 60:18 held by Cam Levins.

Despite Ahmed’s withdrawal, there will still be a large Canadian presence in Houston. Four athletes will be chasing their Olympic dreams in the marathon. Leslie Sexton, 2016 Olympian Lanni Marchant, and Canadian marathon record holder Natasha Wodak will all have their goals on the women’s Olympic standard of 2:26:50, with two spots still open for Paris 2024.

On the men’s side, Tristan Woodfine from Cobden, Ont, returns to the marathon looking to break his personal best of 2:10:51, set three years ago at the London Marathon. The men’s Olympic standard for Paris is 2:08:10.

Vicoty Chepngeno eager to make full marathon debut at Chevron Houston Marathon

After failing to make her full marathon debut at the 2023 Tokyo Marathon, Vicoty Chepngeno will finally do it at the Chevron Houston Marathon.

Philadelphia Half Marathon champion Vicoty Chepngeno will open her season with a full marathon debut at the Chevron Houston Marathon on Sunday, January 14.

Chepngeno set the course record with her 2022 Aramco Houston Half Marathon victory, winning in a time of 1:05:03, which is still the fastest half marathon time ever run in North America to date.

“I am very excited to make my marathon debut in Houston. It is a race I know well. This makes me feel at ease as I focus on what I need to do to achieve my goal of winning,” Chepngeno said as per Endurance Sports Wire.

The race will also feature the return of three-time champion Bruktayit Degefa of Ethiopia. These three wins leave Degefa tied on the most victories ever secured by one runner, all of which are among the six fastest times in race history.

Chepngeno and Degefa will compete with top contenders including Canadian national record holder Natasha Wodak and three-time Rome Marathon champion Rahma Tusa of Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, last year’s men’s race came down to a sprint finish with Kenya’s Dominic Ondoro beating Ethiopia’s Tsedat Ayana and both will make a grand return this year. Ayana will take the opportunity for revenge, while Ondoro will look for his third Houston victory.

“I love the course, the city, and the friendly cheering crowds. To come to the start line, run a good race, and get a win will be wonderful,” said Ondoro, the two-time Houston Marathon champion.

Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta will also be in the starting line, coming into the race with a personal best of 2:05:51. He has a chance to break the tape on what will be his 28th birthday.

In 2023, he was runner-up at the Dubai Marathon in February and won the Beijing Marathon in October. Also expected to be up front, are 2022 Chevron Houston Marathon winner James Ngandu of Kenya and Morocco’s Zouhair Talbi who was fifth in the 2023 Boston Marathon.

“You can always count on exciting storylines and dramatic finishes at the Chevron Houston Marathon.

“Fans will want to make sure they are in front of their TV or lined up on Lamar Street when the runners make that final turn toward the finish line,” said Carly Caulfield, Race Director and General Manager of the Houston Marathon Committee.

The races will be aired live on ABC13 in Houston and streamed around the world on ABC13's official portal featuring commentary from two-time Olympian and Boston Marathon champion Desiree “Des” Linden.

Galen Rupp set to Run Houston Half

Earlier today, the organizers of the Aramco Houston Half Marathon sent out a press release that they’ve secured two big names for their upcoming race, which takes place on January 14 (press release appears below this article). Hellen Obiri of Kenya, the reigning Boston and NYC Marathon champ, will headline the women’s field while American star Galen Rupp will be in the men’s field. It will be both runners’ first appearances in the Houston Half.

With Rupp entered, it’s possible all of the drama of how many spots will the US men get for the Olympic marathon could finally, officially come to an end. LetsRun.com has calculated that if Rupp runs 60:47 or faster in Houston, he will vault up to #64 on to the Road To Paris list (assuming nothing changes on the list before then — the Dubai Marathon is January 7). If Rupp holds that position until January 30, the US would be guaranteed three men’s Olympic marathon participants when the US Olympic Trials take place on February 3 in Orlando.

They wouldn’t need to wait until April 30, when spots #65-80 on the Road to Paris become eligible for the Olympics.

If Rupp runs faster than 60:02 in Houston, he’d move up to #63 on the current Road To Paris list.

Rupp likely wouldn’t need to run 60:47 to move up to #64 as there are bonus points awarded for a top-6 finish. The Houston Half is considered to be a Category B race so there are 10 points for 1st, 7 for 2nd, then 5-3-2-1 for places three through six. At Rupp’s level, one bonus point is worth roughly 1.5 seconds in the half marathon (10 bonus points is 15 seconds).

For example, if Rupp was second in 60:58, it would be the equivalent of running 60:47 with no bonus points. Last year, however, 60:58 was third in Houston, and in that case Rupp would be ranked #65 on the current rankings.

Elite athlete headliners look to be one for the record books even before the race begins

Hellen Obiri confirms next race as she gears up for the Olympic Games

Hellen Obiri has announced her next assignment as she prepares for the Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Reigning New York City Marathon champion Hellen Obiri has been confirmed for the Houston Half Marathon in January 14, 2024.

The race organizers made the announcement on Friday, December 22, explaining that Obiri and two-time Olympic Games medalist Galen Rupp will headline the elite fields.

Obiri will be hoping to make the cut to the Olympic team for Kenya and make an impact and with enough preparations, she is sure of a medal.

She has expressed her interest in winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games and she might stun the world in Paris, France.

During the announcement, Obiri said: "I want to run the marathon at the Olympics in Paris so to run some half marathons is an important part of my preparations."

Obiri has enjoyed a glamorous 2023 season, winning all the two marathons she competed in. The two-time World 5000m champion started the season with a win at the Boston Marathon and completed her season with victory at the New York City Marathon.

She also competed at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon and the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon and won the two races.

On his part, Rupp will be hoping to test himself ahead of the Olympic trials. "The focus is on the trials and making the Olympic team but with Houston being three weeks out I see it as the perfect opportunity to test myself and just make sure I am on track to where I want to be,” he said.

Tirunesh Dibaba to battle Brigid Kosgei at Abu Dhabi Marathon

Three time Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba will battle former world marathon record Brigid Kosgei at the 5th edition of the ADNOC Abu Dhabi Marathon slated for December 16, 2023 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Dibaba who came back this year to running after five years of no active competition due to maternity leave of her third child, has competed once at the Houston Half Marathon in January where she finished a distant sixteenth. The 38 year-old who is also the five time world champion, comes to this race with the second fastest time on paper of 2:17.56 that she got at the 2017 London Marathon where she finished in second place.

Kosgei who is fresh from finishing in fourth place at the New York Marathon last month with a time of 2:27.45, will have a difficult time as she faces Dibaba who has not raced this season due, as her body has not yet fully recovered from the torture of the hilly course of New York.

The two most accomplished athletes of our time will have to get past the 2019 All-African Games 5000m Silver medallist Hawi Feysa of Ethiopia who holds a personal best of 2:23.38 that she got three years ago at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon and last year’s winner of Enschede Marathon, Maurine Chepkemoi from Kenya.

The race organisers have put together a strong female elite field to chase the race course record of 2:20.41 set two years ago by Eunice Chumba from Bahrain.

Suhail Al Arifi, Executive Director of the Events Sector at Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said: “We are thrilled to welcome a group of top international runners for the upcoming fifth edition of the ADNOC Abu Dhabi Marathon this month. Their participation highlights the event’s significance locally and globally. The presence of well-known runners in this year’s line-up reaffirms Abu Dhabi’s and the ADNOC Abu Dhabi Marathon’s success in gaining international recognition in long-distance running.

Al-Arifi added, “We’re delighted to invite people from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to join us in celebrating physical fitness. Regardless of your fitness level, there’s a distance tailored just for you. We encourage everyone to be part of this enriching sports day on the streets of Abu Dhabi, the global capital of sports.”

Participants who register for the race after November 30th can collect their race packs from the Marathon Village between the 12th and 15th December. The race pack will not be available for collection after this period.

Americans Kellyn Taylor and Molly Huddle Are Ready to Race the New York City Marathon

The women's professional lineup for the 2023 New York City Marathon on November 5 packs a wallop. Barring any late withdrawals, we can look forward to a showdown among a defending champion, an Olympic champion, a former marathon world record holder, the current half marathon world record holder, and the 2023 Boston Marathon champion.

While fast times aren't usually the main objective in New York, a race that traditionally favors tactics and competition over pace on an undulating 26.2-miles through the city's five boroughs, we just may see the course record--2:22:31, set all the way back in 2003--go down. 

Last year's surprise winner Sharon Lokedi of Kenya is returning to defend her title. The 2022 race was her debut at the distance and she aced her first test in 2:23:23, though since then, she's coped with a foot injury that kept her out of the Boston Marathon in April. Hellen Obiri, also of Kenya, is back, too--her first attempt at the marathon was also last year in New York, finishing sixth (2:25:49). Obiri went on to win the 2023 Boston Marathon in April, lowering her personal best to 2:21:38.

Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, who broke the marathon world record in 2019, finishing Chicago in 2:14:04 (since bettered in September at the Berlin Marathon by Ethiopian Tigst Assefa in 2:11:53) is also returning from injury after dropping out of the 2023 London Marathon in the first mile.

Joining these top contenders are 2021 Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir, also of Kenya, who won the 2021 New York City and 2022 Boston marathons and owns a 2:17:16 personal best, and Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey, the 2022 world champion in the 10,000 meters, ran the fastest marathon debut in history at the 2022 Valencia Marathon with a 2:16:49 effort.

The American women's field this year is small, because most athletes opted for earlier fall races, like the Chicago Marathon, to allow for more recovery time before training begins for the U.S. Olympic Trials, scheduled for February 3, 2024, in Orlando, Florida. But Molly Huddle and Kellyn Taylor are each making their return to the distance on Sunday after giving birth to their daughters in 2022--Huddle welcomed Josephine in April and Taylor welcomed Keagan in December (in addition to their eldest daughter, who is 13 years old, the Taylor family adopted a five-year-old son and almost-two-year-old daughter, growing the family to four children in the past 13 months).

Huddle, 39, and Taylor, 37, both said it was important to them to get in a healthy marathon training cycle and race experience prior to the U.S. Olympic Trials, to get back in the routine and fitness they'll utilize in preparation for 2024.

"Obviously you want to be able to finish 26.2 miles and have that fresh in your mind, but also the buildup, the marathon work--I've gotten pretty far away from that just with the pregnancy and postpartum," said Huddle, a two-time Olympian in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, who placed third at the 2016 New York City Marathon (2:28:13) in her debut at the distance. "This is supposed to be a building block toward the workload that you need for the Trials--I'm going to have to try and inch my way back a little closer to what I'd ideally do for a marathon buildup."

Huddle hasn't started a marathon since the 2020 Trials in Atlanta, which she dropped out of at the 21-mile mark. She hasn't finished a marathon since April 2019, when she lowered her personal best to 2:26:33 with a 12th-place finish at the London Marathon. However, she did run two relatively fast half marathons this year, including a fifth-place, 1:10:01 effort at the Houston Half Marathon in January.

Taylor's last marathon was two years ago in New York, where she placed sixth in 2:26:10. In September, she finished seventh in the U.S. 20K Championships in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1:08:04.

Going into the 2023 New York City Marathon, here's what the two top Americans had to say as they reflected on their postpartum experiences and goals for their first 26.2-mile race back:

They would have preferred to race the Chicago Marathon because of the timing.

Huddle, who is the former American record holder in the half marathon, 5,000 meters, and 10,000 meters, was hoping to make her postpartum comeback on a flatter, faster course like the October 8 Chicago Marathon, which would have also afforded an additional three weeks of time until the U.S. Olympic Trials. Taylor, who placed eighth at the 2020 Trials in Atlanta and owns three top-10 finishes in New York, agreed that Chicago's timing would've been more ideal. Neither of them were accepted into the professional field, however.

"We birthed humans. We were still running--it's not like we've been sitting on the couch eating Cheetos for a year," Taylor said. "It didn't work out and that's fine. I'll go where I'm wanted, so it doesn't really bother me that much--we'll still have 11 weeks until the Trials, and New York's my favorite marathon, hands down. I love the course. I love the people."

Huddle is also looking forward to racing in New York.

"They've always been happy to have me and that was important. I love racing through the city," she said. "My only concern was it's a very challenging course and there probably won't be any PRs happening, so I'll have to chase that later in the next year and a half."

A spokesperson for the Chicago Marathon said in an email message, in part, that the race officials "weigh many factors including performance standards, athlete interest, event resources, and operational considerations," when choosing athletes to accept into the professional race each year. "While our goal is to host as many athletes as possible, there are years where demand to participate exceeds the resources available and operational needs to host a professional race," the spokesperson wrote.

Huddle attributes her injury in the spring (mostly) to breastfeeding.

In March, Huddle experienced her first major bone injury of her career--a femoral stress fracture--which took her out of training for three months. After talking with her medical team, she's fairly convinced that her dietary needs weren't being met while breastfeeding. Since then, she's learned to adjust her fueling to account for what she loses not only to training, but also feeding her daughter.

"I refer to it as my body's new rules, because old me always knew how to fuel and I knew what I could handle workload-wise," Huddle said. "Now there is just more taxing the system and there's less time to mindfully refuel."

Taylor is finding much more camaraderie this time around.

When Taylor had her first daughter 13 years ago, not many fellow competitors had children. This time, however, she is finding a plethora of support from elite distance running moms.

In 2010, pro athletes also couldn't find much, if any, information about how to safely train through pregnancy and postpartum. And although solid research still lags, plenty of athletes are ready and willing to share their experiences with each other, which Taylor didn't have the first time around.

"It's become really helpful to be able to text each other and just directly ask how they handled one thing or another," Taylor says. "There isn't necessarily a lot of information, but with the network of athletes that have kids, I feel like there's more coming out now."

Huddle and Taylor each took a bit more conservative approach to training for New York this time. In the past, Taylor's peak weekly mileage could go as high as 130, but this time around she topped out around 112 miles. Similarly, Huddle's mileage prior to pregnancy would hit around 115 and this time she kept it to about 80 miles per week and substituted an Elliptigo session for a second run some days.

Their goals for Sunday run the gamut.

Despite a severe lack of sleep, Taylor's recovery from pregnancy and childbirth has gone exceedingly smoothly, she said, emphasizing that everybody's return is different and she believes she just lucked out with her genetics.

Knowing that she'll face a stellar international field on Sunday, Taylor is ready to run an aggressive race, targeting a 2:23 finish. (Her personal best is 2:24:29 from 2018 at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth Minnesota, but that was before the adventure of super shoes.)

"I think I'm in a really good position. I think I have the potential to run really well," said Taylor, who will wear Hoka Rocket X 2 shoes. "I think I can run 2:23 on a good day and that could put me in the hunt to do something, depending on how the race plays out."

Huddle has more of a wait-and-see approach, though, she notes, it is the first marathon in which she'll race in super shoes. She'll race in the Saucony Endorphin Elite shoes.

"I just don't think I'm going to be hanging with the world record holders, so I'm going to let them go do their thing," Huddle said. "I'm just focusing more on myself and just seeing what I can do."

It'll be a learning experience for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

The duo will each have a bigger fanbase than ever with their families coming to New York to support them. It's also an opportunity to see how they can organize the logistics of racing, childcare, and race prep ahead of the Trials in February.

Huddle, who is also raising money for &Mother, a nonprofit organization that supports athletes who pursue their career goals while parenting, as part of her marathon experience on Sunday, is hoping she will be done breastfeeding by February, but New York will serve as a test run in case she is not.

"I think it'll be interesting just seeing what the routine is like with my family, how we're going to shuffle everyone around with childcare and sleeping arrangements," Huddle said.

For Taylor, an additional hotel room was necessary to accommodate the whole family--and she couldn't be happier to have everybody there.

"It's going to be complete chaos," she said, laughing. "My parents are coming, so they're going to be the saving graces."

TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon: elite women’s and men’s preview

For the first time in the 34-year history of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the race has reached over 25,000 runners. Toronto has established itself as Canada’s premier marathon and has set a precedent in the global running community, with participants coming from 78 countries around the world for the marathon on Sunday, Oct. 15.

The elite field at the 2023 edition of the marathon looks significantly different from last year, and two new champions will be crowned on the men’s and women’s sides, as Ethiopia’s Yihunilign Adane and Kenya’s Antonina Kwamboi will not be returning. The 2023 elite field features up-and-coming stars, along with several American women aiming to achieve the Olympic standard of 2:26:50 ahead of the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials in February.

The race will also determine two new Canadian marathon champions, with compelling storylines on both the men’s and women’s sides.

Women’s race

Will we see an American winner?

It has been 22 years since an American woman last won the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon (Leslie Gold in 2001) but in this year’s field, two American elites could possibly end the drought. One of them, Emily Durgin, a road racing specialist based out of Flagstaff, Ariz. came to Toronto looking for redemption after a less-than-ideal marathon debut in NYC last year.

Durgin said during Friday’s elite press conference that she felt the pressure to hit times and perform during her debut and ended up dropping out of the race before 30 km. “I learned a lot from New York and my build for Toronto has been different,” said Durgin. “As for a goal time, I want to run in the low 2:20s and be competitive.” The 29-year-old marathoner hopes to use Toronto as a stepping stone for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2024 in Orlando. Durgin was able to qualify for the trials from her time at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon where she finished 6th overall, clocking the seventh-fastest half-marathon in U.S. history with 67:54. “I came to Toronto to be competitive and contend for the the podium, as that’s what it will take to qualify at trials come February,” she said.

Another U.S. name in the women’s elite field to watch is Molly Grabill, who is running her sixth career marathon in Toronto on Sunday. Grabill told the media that she has similar plans to her compatriot Durgin and hopes to bounce back after, in her words, falling short of her goals in her last marathon in Hamburg earlier this year. Although Grabill ran the second-fastest marathon time of her career in Hamburg, she said she was disappointed as she took a swing and missed, struggling in the second half. “The goal in Toronto is to control the second half of the race better and gain strong momentum heading into the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials,” said Grabill. The 31-year-old from Boulder, Colo., is coming off a top-15 finish in 69:53 at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, earlier this month, which she says has given her a lot of confidence for Sunday.

Eyes on the course record?

Outside of the American duo, two other international athletes to watch are the Ethiopian duo of Afera Godfay and 2023 Ottawa Marathon champion Waganesh Mekasha. For Godfay, Toronto is her first marathon in three years after giving birth to her daughter. Her last marathon came in 2020 when she ran 2:26:43 to place third overall at the Xiamen Marathon in China. In her first two races back since becoming a mother, Godfay has run respectable half marathon times of 70 and 71 minutes but has not yet returned to her previous form. She said at Friday’s press conference that she hopes to come through the half mark in 1:11 and feels well-prepared for her marathon return. A glimpse of hope for Godfay is that she currently trains alongside the new women’s world record holder Tigist Assefa in Ethiopia. So, who knows what she is capable of?

The favourite in the women’s race is Mekasha, who is coming off a win in the scorching heat at the 2023 Ottawa Marathon in May. Mekasha is targeting the Canadian all-comers’ women’s marathon record on Sunday of 2:22:16, set four years ago by Kenya’s Magdalyne Masai at this race. Mekasha holds a personal best of 2:22:45 from the 2019 Dubai Marathon and said that she expects around a similar time on Sunday. “If the pacemaker runs a good pace, I hope to break the course record,” says Mekasha.

The Canadian contingent

Two of the top three Canadians from last year’s race have returned to the 2023 field, with Malindi Elmore, the reigning Canadian marathon champion, opting to run Berlin, where she clocked the second-fastest time in Canadian history (2:23:30). Returning are second and third place Canadian finishers Dayna Pidhoresky and Toronto’s own Sasha Gollish. Pidhoresky had an iconic moment here in 2019, when she raced just under the Olympic standard at the Canadian trials, winning in 2:29:03–qualifying her for the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Although the Olympic marathon didn’t go as planned for Pidhoresky, she was able to bounce back at this event last year to place seventh overall (second Canadian) in 2:30:58. 

“Growing up in Windsor, Ont., I came to Toronto for so many races,” said Pidhoresky on tackling on her fourth Toronto Waterfront Marathon. “I feel I know the course very well, which is helpful in a marathon, and it’s great to have a high-quality field that’s close to home.” Pidhoresky told the media that this build has not been smooth but she is still confident she can run a personal best Sunday. “This course is advantageous, and I need to be smart and just run my race,” she said.

It is a similar story for Gollish, who is running in her second consecutive TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, less than eight weeks after her last marathon at the 2023 World Championships in August. Gollish told Canadian Running at the press conference that she wants to go into this race with a similar mindset that she had in Budapest. “It feels like a privilege to be here, and I am not putting any pressure of a personal best on myself,” says Gollish. “For the longest time, I avoided this race because I felt there would be pressure to perform, but why not run something in your backyard fuelled by a community that has done so much for me?” Last year, Gollish surprised herself with a personal best time of 2:31:40 after a short marathon build. Could she do the same on Sunday?

A few other Canadian marathoners to watch are Emily Setlack, Toronto’s Liza Howard and Kim Krezonoski of Thunder Bay, Ont. It has been four years since Setlack has last touched the marathon, but with a personal best of 2:29:48 from the 2019 edition of this race, her potential to finish as the top Canadian should not be ignored. Setlack has had a quiet 2023 season but has strung together solid performances, winning Toronto’s historic Sporting Life 10K and placing eighth overall at the Canadian 10K Championships in May.

Howard has a personal best of 2:35:29 (Chicago 2022) and was the top Canadian finisher at the 2023 Boston Marathon (37th overall) in cold, wet and windy conditions. Krezonoski moved to Toronto within the last year and has been studying the course thoroughly in the hope of crushing her marathon personal best come Sunday. She ran her personal best of 2:37 at the California International Marathon last year but has dropped her half-marathon PB by nearly four minutes since. The spots on the domestic podium are up for grabs, and each of these three women could break through. 

Men’s race

The rise of Elvis 

The absence of Adane opens the door for several East African men hoping to establish their marathon careers in Toronto. One of these men is Kenya’s Elvis Kipchoge, who may already lay claim to the title of the best running name. This Kipchoge is a little less well-known than the former world record holder but boasts a faster half marathon personal best of 59:15, which earned him third place at the 2022 Barcelona Half Marathon. However, this Kipchoge has not had much luck in the marathon. At the young age of 27, he ran 2:10:21 at the Vienna Marathon earlier this year. He hopes to turn things around on a fast and flat Toronto course. Kipchoge has ties to the race, training alongside women’s course record holder Magdalyne Masai in Iten, Kenya. 

While there is no relation between Elvis and Eliud Kipchoge, besides sharing the same last name and initials, Ethiopian athlete Adugna Bikila hopes to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, Worku Bikila. Worku was a world-class 5,000m runner who finished sixth in the 1992 Olympic 5,000m final in Barcelona and took fourth place at the World Championships the following year. Bikila enters Toronto with the fastest time in the field, holding a personal best of 2:05:52 from the 2022 Seville Marathon, where he finished fourth.

All the East African men will be aiming to break the Canadian all-comers record and course record of 2:05:00, held by Kenya’s Philemon Rono, set in 2019. The weather forecast for Sunday indicates cool and favourable conditions for both the men’s and women’s fields, which should make both course records vulnerable.

Who’s next for Canada?

A new men’s Canadian champion will be crowned Sunday, and for the first time since 2016, their last name will not be Levins or Hofbauer. The 2023 men’s field is full of up-and-coming Canadian talent on the precipice of breaking into the elite scene. Mississauga’s Sergio Raez Villanueva returns to Toronto after a stunning 2:18:04 debut last year, which earned him top-five Canadian honours. Challenging Raez Villanueva is Ottawa’s Blair Morgan, who was the second Canadian at the hot and humid Ottawa Marathon in May, running 2:19:50. Morgan ran his personal best of 2:18:29 at the 2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon but is looking for a sub-2:18 result this time around.  

Challenging Raez Villanueva and Morgan are debutants Thomas Broatch of Vancouver and 4:01 miler Kyle Grieve. Broatch is coming off a win at the Vancouver Eastside 10K where he beat three-time Toronto champion Trevor Hofbauer. “Winning the Eastside 10K was a huge confidence booster for me,” says Broatch. “Whenever you take the start line the objective is to win and run fast.” The 24-year-old software engineer told Canadian Running that he has ambitious goals to run under 2:15 on Sunday and that his marathon build has gone near perfect.

For Grieve, who grew up and still resides in Toronto, this marathon has always been on his bucket list. “I’ve been wanting to try a marathon for a few years and have just kept putting it off,” says Grieve, who got married in the summer. “Canada Running Series is a big reason I am still competing today, so it was never a question of where I wanted to run my first marathon.” His goal is to be competitive against a strong Canadian field and let the time come along with it.

How to watch?

Marathon fans from around the world will have the opportunity to watch the 2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon live on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET with a pre-race introduction followed by the introduction of the elite field. The gun for the men’s and women’s elite field fires at 8:45 a.m. ET. All race action can be followed on torontowaterfrontmarathon.com or CBCsports.ca /CBC Gem or AthleticsCanada.tv.

Jenny Simpson, U.S. mile legend, to race Olympic marathon trials

Jenny Simpson, the most decorated U.S. female miler in history, is moving up in distance and plans to race the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials on Feb. 3 in Orlando, near where she grew up.

“It’s an easy decision for me to run the marathon Trials in Orlando,” she wrote in an email after making the announcement in an Instagram live video with the Orlando Track Shack. “For a long time I’ve flirted with the idea of going the full distance and with Orlando hosting the Trials, I just can’t miss the chance to go back home.”

Simpson, 36, announced last October that she was shifting focus from the track, where she was a world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500m, to longer races on the roads.

Typically for distance runners that accomplished, it means an eventual move all the way up to the marathon. Simpson messaged then that her chances of racing over 26.2 miles were “51% :).”

A month later, Orlando was announced as the host of the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials. Simpson’s family moved to Florida when she was in third grade, and she went to high school in Oviedo, which is 15 miles northeast of Orlando.

“It’ll be fun to literally come back to the beginnings of my running and take in the scenery of the place where I ran my first few races,” Simpson said in Tuesday’s video.

Simpson’s last track race was at the Tokyo Olympic Trials, where she was 10th in the 1500m final. It was her first time not placing in the top three at a U.S. outdoor championships since 2006 and first time not being on an Olympic team since 2004.

In September 2021, Simpson ran the Cherry Blossom 10-mile road race in Washington, D.C., nearly three times as long as the farthest distance she had raced as a pro up to that point.

She then focused much of her time in 2022 helping her Colorado community heal and rebuild from a late December 2021 fire.

She ran 5km and 10-mile road races late in 2022, then on Jan. 15 of this year placed ninth in the Houston half marathon in 70 minutes, 35 seconds to beat the Olympic Trials qualifying time of 72 minutes. That was her most recent race, according to World Athletics.

Simpson attended the 2020 marathon trials to watch husband Jason run. Jason has not qualified for next year’s trials yet but is still hopeful.

One U.S. woman has made Olympic teams in both the 1500m and the marathon in her career -- Francie Larrieu-Smith, who made her first team in the 1500m at age 19 and her last in the marathon at 39, according to Olympedia.org.

Simpson hasn’t said whether she will race a marathon in the fall or if the trials will be her debut at the distance, “but the next six months will be all about getting ready to go the extra 25.2 miles,” she wrote.

The list of marathon trials qualifiers already includes nine of the 15 fastest American women in history. The top three finishers on Feb. 3 will likely make up the Olympic team.

“As I get older, I didn’t want to run out of really good years to give to something that was so intriguing to me for so long,” Simpson said of the marathon. “I’ve accomplished a lot already, and now I can do something that I want to do, not necessarily something that’s going to just objectively, absolutely pay off.”

World class racing returns to Boston on Sunday with the BAA 10K

The BAA 10K is this Sunday in Boston. The elites—as well as a mass field of nearly 10,000 runners—will race through the streets of the Back Bay neighborhood.

Emily Sisson has her eyes on another American record; she’s been on a tear the past year on the roads. In October, at the 2022 Chicago Marathon, she took 43 seconds off Keira D’Amato’s American record, running 2:18:29 for second place. Three months later, at the Houston Half Marathon, she broke her own American record, crossing the line in 1:06:52. She’s setting her sights on Shalane Flanagan’s 10K record of 30:52, which Flanagan set at the 2016 edition of the BAA 10K.

Also toeing the line is Molly Seidel, who’s been running some shorter races to prepare for a fall marathon. In February, she finished eighth at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in 1:13:08.

A slew of former Boston Marathon champions are also competing on Sunday. Hellen Obiri, who won April’s race, will line up next to two-time champion Edna Kiplagat and 2015 winner Caroline Rotich. The course record of 30:36 could be up for grabs.

The men’s field is highlighted by 2021 Boston Marathon champion Benson Kipruto, who won the BAA 10K in 2018. American Leonard Korir returns as the race’s reigning champion, taking last year’s win in 28:00—12 seconds off the American record of 27:48 that has stood since 1985. Gabriel Geay, Geoffrey Koech, and Tsegay Kidanu should also be in contention.

Those in the Boston area can catch coverage of the race on WCVB. The BAA Racing App will also provide live updates and results, but there is no stream of the race. The elites are scheduled to start at 8 a.m. ET.

U.S. Champion Erika Kemp is set for Boston Marathon debut

Erika Kemp has lived in Boston since 2018, training with the Boston Athletic Association’s pro team. But she has never trained on the Boston Marathon course. Why would she? Most of her training was for track and road 5Ks and 10Ks and the occasional longer distance, like the U.S. 20K championships, which she won in 2021.

Now that Kemp’s making her marathon debut—at Boston—she and her new coach, Kurt Benninger, who is based in Providence, Rhode Island, figured it was time to put some long runs in on the road she’ll be racing in April. The plan on February 26 was for her to run 20 miles, the longest run she’s ever gone, starting at mile 3 of the course and getting through the Newton hills. It’s a straight shot—at least for most people.

But Kemp, 28, who admits she gets lost easily, was running on the right side of the road through the town of Wellesley when she inadvertently got off course. She ran onto Route 9, an unappealing stretch of road with office parks, car dealerships, and a 50-mile-per-hour speed limit. She didn’t realize she was on the wrong road until 6 miles later. By the time she got back to her home in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, she had exceeded 23 miles—and she never did see those Newton hills.

She put in a call to Benninger.

“I didn’t quite know how to tell him,” Kemp said. “It’s still a relatively new coaching relationship. How do I tell him I ran an extra 20 minutes and didn’t see the second half of the course I was supposed to see?”

Benninger, though, thought it was funny. So did Kemp. “He was super chill about it,” she said, and he told her, “Well, you got some extra volume. We’ll definitely go over directions more carefully next time.”

New beginnings

Early 2023 has brought many new roads for Kemp—some figurative, some literal. She decided not to re-sign with the B.A.A.’s High Performance Team at the end of last year. Now, in addition to the new race distance she’s trying, she has a new sponsorship deal with Brooks and a new training situation.

After Boston, she’ll move to Providence to be in person with Benninger’s group, which includes pros Marielle Hall, Helen Schlactenhaufen, and Brian Shrader (though the latter two train mainly in Boston). In addition, Benninger’s wife, Molly Huddle, who is coached by Ray Treacy, comes to a lot of their practices. Occasionally Emily Sisson, another Treacy athlete, will be in town. Kemp expects she’ll match up with Hall for most of her workouts.

It’s a big change from what she’s been doing, but Kemp felt like she needed it. She was a six-time All-American at North Carolina State University, and she improved on her college times at the B.A.A., running 15:10 for 5,000 meters on the track and 31:35 for 10,000. But she felt like she came up short at the biggest moments.

“I have yet to feel like I really have had that breakthrough race,” she said, “where all of my training and improvements have been reflected in a singular performance. I have had a lot of races the last couple of years where I got to the start line kind of fatigued. I don’t feel like it’s 100 percent reflective of how much I’ve improved.”

When she decided to leave the B.A.A., she didn’t have a training situation lined up for herself yet, and she was still talking to sponsors. So she got herself through the early days of marathon training by consulting with friends and a network of experienced marathoners, building up her mileage to 90 per week from the high 70s or low 80s she had been doing. It was a big jump for her, but she handled it well.

The only downside to marathon training is the constant hunger. Kemp is usually a sound sleeper, but she found herself waking up at 3 a.m. several nights in a row. Finally she realized she was hungry and started scarfing down a bowl of cereal. Then she’d go right back to sleep.

“You’re literally eating a bowl of cereal in the dark, and thinking, ‘What is my life right now?’” she said.

Whatever she was running—and eating—worked: In January, she finished seventh at the Houston Half Marathon in a PR of 1:10:14, averaging 5:22 per mile. With the performance, Kemp qualified for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, which she intends to run.

She said that Brooks felt like a natural fit as a sponsor, and the company didn’t mind if she wanted to stay on the East Coast instead of joining one of its two established training groups in Michigan or Seattle.

New Mom and Elite Runner Molly Huddle is Ready to Take on the NYC Half

Molly Huddle admits making time for running is considerably more challenging since giving birth to a baby girl last April, but she’s excited to be back racing at a high level as a healthy and fit mother.

The 38-year-old two-time U.S. Olympian ran so well at the Houston Half Marathon on January 15, she’s optimistic about racing a late spring marathon. Next up, Huddle will be racing in the deep women’s elite field at the United Airlines NYC Half on March 19 for the first time since taking her third consecutive victory in the event in 2017.

Huddle began to gradually increase her training late last summer under the guidance of longtime coach Ray Treacy and ran a couple of moderately fast 10Ks and a half marathon last fall. But then she had a big breakthrough when she ran 1:10:01 in Houston. Even though that was well off the 1:07:25 PR she recorded while setting an American record in 2018, it was still an impressive effort.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d get back to even doing that, so that was good,” Huddle said. “Sometimes it’s good to just start 100 percent over and slowly build back. I think that was the only way I was gonna do it. I haven’t really been tested at a level that would be like trying to PR or qualify for a U.S. team, so we’ll see how it goes. But I think there’s a lot out there. I mean, just because you’re not making the Olympic team, you can still do a lot in the sport.”

Huddle said she generally felt good while running about 40 miles a week through eight months of her pregnancy, but then backed off and did whatever she could manage in the final month before Josephine was born on April 26. After giving birth, Huddle took extra time to recover until she felt like she could run consistently, but she also consulted with a pelvic floor specialist to make sure she wouldn’t risk injury by incorporating too much training intensity too soon.

While she’s earnestly back to training at a high level, she admits she’s still managing the physical challenges of breastfeeding, as well as the new time constraints as she and her partner, Kurt Benninger, the head cross country coach and assistant track coach at Brown University, juggle their schedules to maintain their professional lives while prioritizing their efforts to care for their daughter.

Huddle is grateful for the continued support from her longtime sponsor Saucony, as well as the increased honest public and social media conversations among women athletes becoming mothers. She says she’s taken cues, inspiration and advice from fellow elite-runner moms Aliphine Tuliamuk, Faith Kipygeon and Sara Vaughn, among others.

“It’s just a long timeline, but it’s been great to see other women do it,” Huddle says. “It takes some time and some, you know, intentional exercises and some pacing yourself, but then once you get the green light after, you know, a certain amount of months, I feel like you can do everything you were doing before.”

Huddle won the NYC Half in 2015, 2016, and 2017,with her winning time of 1:07:41 from 2016 setting an event record that stood until last year. She’ll line up against Ethiopia’s two-time Olympian Senbere Teferi, who last year broke Huddle’s event record while winning in 1:07:35. She is also a two-time world championships silver medalist and the 5K world-record holder (14:29) for a women-only race.

Other Notable Runners for the NYC Half

Two-time Olympic medalist and seven-time world championships medalist Hellen Obiri of Kenya, three-time Olympian and four-time European Championships medalist Eilish McColgan of Scotland, and two-time U.S. Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden will also toe the line in New York. Other top Americans include Dakotah Lindwurm, Erika Kemp, Maggie Montoya, Annie Frisbie and Jeralyn Poe.

Huddle hasn’t announced which marathon she’ll run in late April or early May. Her last effort at 26.2 miles was four years ago this spring, when, despite having had an off day in London, she finished 12th place in a new PR of 2:26:33. She was considered one of the favorites to finish in the top three at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Atlanta three years ago this week, but dropped out near mile 20, partially because she was still struggling with an Achilles injury.

Joshua Cheptegei will battle Jacob Kiplimo and Galen Rupp at 2023 United Airlines NYC Half

 The 2023 United Airlines NYC Half on Sunday, March 19 will feature professional athletes from 17 different countries, including 19 Olympians, 11 Paralympians, and seven past event champions, making it one of the most diverse fields in the race’s history.

The men’s open division will be headlined by Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei, half-marathon world-record holder Jacob Kiplimo, and Olympic medalist Galen Rupp. Defending champion Senbere Teferi, Olympic and World Championships medalist Hellen Obiri, and three-time event champion Molly Huddle will lead the women’s open division. A trio of past TCS New York City Marathon and United Airlines NYC Half champions – Susannah Scaroni, Manuela Schär, and Daniel Romanchuk – will feature in the strongest wheelchair field in event history, which will also welcome Paralympic medalists Catherine Debrunner and Jetze Plat for the first time.

These athletes will lead more than 25,000 runners at the United Airlines NYC Half, which goes from Brooklyn to Manhattan, passing historic landmarks, diverse neighborhoods and sweeping views of the city along the way before ending in Central Park.

Men’s Open Division

A pair of Ugandans, two-time Olympic and four-time World Championships medalist Cheptegei and Olympic medalist and two-time World Champion Kiplimo, will race head-to-head in the men’s open division as they take on an NYRR race for the first time. At 26 years old, Cheptegei is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 5,000 meters and world champion in the 10,000 meters, as well as the world-record holder in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. In November 2021, Kiplimo set the half marathon world record of 57:31 to win the Lisbon Half three months after taking a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the 10,000 meters. Then last year, the 22-year-old won bronze in the 10,000 meters at the World Championships. He won the gold medal, ahead of Cheptegei’s bronze, at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, on February 18.

“I’m very excited for my first race in New York City, the United Airlines NYC Half,” said Cheptegei. “One of the primary goals for 2023 is to defend my 10,000-meter gold medal from the World Championships, and this half marathon is an important part of those preparations. The race seems like a great tour of New York City and it’s very cool that we get to run through Times Square. There’s so much running history in New York, and the city has seen so many champions battling it out in iconic races. I want to add to that history.”

“It will be my USA road racing debut at the United Airlines NYC Half next month, and I will try hard to become the first champion from Uganda,” Kiplimo said. “My gold medal from the World Cross Country Championships last weekend shows that everybody will need to be at their best to beat me. I have been told that the NYC Half course is difficult, and a record may not be possible, so I will focus on being the first across the finish line in Central Park.”

Challenging the Ugandan pair will be two-time U.S. Olympic medalist and Chicago Marathon champion Rupp, last year’s United Airlines NYC Half runner-up Edward Cheserek of Kenya, and past event champions Ben True of the United States and Belay Tilahun of Ethiopia.

Women’s Open DivisionTwo-time Olympian Huddle will be racing the United Airlines NYC Half for the first time since taking her third consecutive victory in the event in 2017. Huddle won the race in 2015, 2016, and 2017, with her winning time of 1:07:41 from 2016 setting an event record that stood until last year. The former American record-holder in the half marathon was fifth at the Houston Half Marathon in January, nine months after giving birth to her daughter.

“In a lot of ways, my three-straight wins at the United Airlines NYC Half really began my transition to full-time road racing. I’m excited to return to the race for the first time in six years, with a different mindset towards training and racing since the birth of my daughter,” Huddle said. “I’m inspired to teach her the value of hard work and resilience, and where better to do that than the city that has seen some of my career’s greatest successes?”

Huddle will line up against Ethiopia’s two-time Olympian Teferi, who last year broke Huddle’s event record, finishing in a time of 1:07:35 to win the race, and returned to Central Park three months later to win her first Mastercard New York Mini 10K. She is also a two-time World Championships silver medalist and the 5K world-record holder for a women-only race.

Two-time Olympic medalist and seven-time world championships medalist Obiriof Kenya, three-time Olympian and four-time European Championships medalist Eilish McColgan, andtwo-time U.S. Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden will also toe the line.

The event will be covered locally in the tri-state area by ABC New York, Channel 7 with live news cut-ins between 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Additionally, the four professional fields will be covered by a livestream, distributed internationally from NYRR’s digital channels, abc7ny.com, and the ESPN App, beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET.

Runners Will Chase Historic Times at 2023 Publix Atlanta Half Marathon

 A run for records will take place at the Publix Atlanta Half Marathon next week where some of the world’s best runners will attempt to complete the fastest half marathon ever run in the state of Georgia. This year’s elite field features eight men who have run faster than the current men’s record of 1:00:36 and four women who have run faster than the women’s record of 1:08:22. Both times were set at this event in 2022.

Nicholas Kosimbei will return to Atlanta to defend his title and his record. The 26-year-old from Kenya dominated last year’s race which was held in the driving rain, winning by more than two minutes. Fellow Kenyans Raymond Magut and Goeffrey Koech who placed second and third respectively last year are also returning. Magut boasts a personal best of 1:00:00 while Koech has broken the one-hour mark with a career best of 59:36. Koech won his most recent half marathon, the B.A.A.Half Marathon in Boston last November.

“I love the course in Atlanta,” said Kosimbei. “I am looking forward to returning and my goal is to break my own course record.”

Other top contenders include Tsegay Kidanu (Ethiopia, 59:39),  Josphat Tanui (Kenya, 59:40), Phenus Kipleting (Kenya, 1:00:08) and Bethwell Yegon (Kenya, 1:00:57), the runner-up at the 2021 BMW Berlin Marathon.

With last year’s winner Dorcas Tuitoek not returning in 2023, a new face will break the tape to win the women’s title. The fastest woman in the field is Kenya’s Cynthia Jerotich. Jerotich was a dominant force on the roads from 2013 to 2016, setting a half marathon personal best of 1:06:04 and winning a silver medal at the World Half Marathon Championships in 2016. Jerotich stepped away from racing in 2017 and gave birth to three children before returning to competition last year. At 33, she will be looking to return to the form that saw her winning road races around the world including some of the most prestigious events in the United States. 

Jerotich will face Helah Kiprop, the winner of last year’s Copenhagen Marathon and the runner-up at the Frankfort Marathon. Kirprop, a 2016 Olympian from Kenya, has a half marathon personal best of 1:07:39. Also among the fastest in the field are 2017 Houston Half Marathon winner Veronica Wanjiru (Kenya, 1:07:58) and Vibian Chepkirui (1:08:02). Chepkirui won the Vienna Marathon last year in a course record time of 2:20:59.

Athletes in the 2023 Publix Atlanta Half Marathon will be competing for a $22,000 prize purse including a first place prize of $4,000. There is an additional $2,500 bonus for the male or female winner who sets the course and Georgia all-time record. Full elite fields can be found below. The race will be streamed live on Atlanta Track Club’s YouTube page with commentary from Chris Chavez, Carrie Tollefson and Ali Feller. 

About Atlanta Track Club                                                

Atlanta Track Club is a nonprofit committed to creating an active and healthy Atlanta. Through running and walking, Atlanta Track Club motivates, inspires and engages the community to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

With more than 30,000 members, Atlanta Track Club is the second largest running organization in the United States. In addition to the AJC Peachtree Road Race (peachtreeroadrace.org) – the largest 10K running event in the world, the Publix Atlanta Marathon, PNC Atlanta 10 Miler and Invesco QQQ Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon, Atlanta Track Club directs more than 30 events per year. Through the support of its members and volunteers, Atlanta Track Club also maintains a number of community initiatives including organizing and promoting the Kilometer Kids youth running program to metro Atlanta youth, honoring high school cross country and track and field athletes through Atlanta Track Club’s All-Metro Banquets and supporting the Grady Bicycle EMT program. For more information on Atlanta Track Club, visit atlantatrackclub.org.

Kosgei joins Obiri, Korir at Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon

Women’s world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei has confirmed participation at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates in February 18, 2023.

Kosgei has a life time best of 2:14:04 over the 42km distance and 1:04:49 in the 21km distance. She returns to the Middle East with the hope of improving her second-place finish that she settled for in 2020.

Kosgei has a decorated running career which includes being the Olympic marathon silver medallist and 2017 Bogota Half Marathon champion. She is also the 2019 Bahrain and Houston Half Marathon champion.

She will be joining two-time World 5000m champion Hellen Obiri and World marathon silver medallist Judith Korir.

Obiri, who has a personal best time of 1:04:22 over the distance, placed second in last year’s edition of the race after being edged out by Ethiopia’s Girmawit Gebrzihair. Gebrzihair won the race in 1:04:14. Sheila Chepkirui placed third in 1:04:36.

On her part, Korir is the 2021 Lugano Half Marathon champion with a personal best time of 1:05:28. She settled for fourth place in last year’s edition of the race in 1:05:28.

Meanwhile, in the men’s category, Daniel Mateiko will face-off Ethiopia’s Seifu Tura with the hope of a podium finish. Mateiko will be looking to improve on his sixth-place finish at last year’s edition of the race. He lines up with a personal best time of 58:26.

Emily Sisson sets a new half marathon American record in Houston

Emily Sisson shattered her own American record in the half marathon by finishing in 1:06:52. She is now the first American woman to break the 1:07 barrier after placing second behind race winner Hiwot Gebremaryam of Ethiopia, who ran 1:06:28.

Ethiopian Leul Gebresilase Aleme won the men’s half in a sprint finish. He ran 1:00:34—less than a second ahead of runner-up Wesley Kiptoo of Kenya.

Emily Sisson Re-Breaks Her Own American Record

Sisson improved on her record the hard way by going out fast, slowing down slightly through the last sections, and kicking it in towards the finish. After Gebremaryam broke the race open in the first few miles—by 5K, she was already 17 seconds ahead of the chase pack—Sisson ran with Jessica Warner-Judd of Great Britain through 15K. The American record-holder averaged 5-minute mile pace through the first 5K but struggled in the latter half of the course, clocking 5:12 miles around 20K.

“I went out a little too fast the first 5K or so, so the last few miles I was definitely feeling it,” Sisson said on the ABC 13 broadcast.

But Sisson pushed through the discomfort as she neared the finish line to make history once again. “I’m really excited about it. I really wanted to break 67 minutes and I’m happy I did,” she said. “I actually think I could have run a little more evenly so I’m already hoping to run another half and even try to run faster.”

Sisson broke the American record for the first time in May 2022 at the USATF Half Marathon Road Championships in Indianapolis. The Providence College alum won the national title in 1:07:11, four seconds faster than the previous American record set by Sara Hall less than four months earlier at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon.

Prior to the U.S. championships, Sisson came extremely close to the mark on two occasions. When the record was 1:07:25 (held by her former training partner Molly Huddle), she ran 1:07:30 in 2019 and 1:07:26 in 2020.

Last year, the momentum continued in a big way for Sisson when she broke the American record in the marathon. In October, she demolished the time by running 2:18:29 in Chicago—lowering the previous record set by Keira D’Amato at the 2022 Houston Marathon by 43 seconds.

Close Finish in the Men’s Half Marathon

The men’s half marathon featured one of the most exciting finishes of the day. After pulling away from the chase pack together with a few miles remaining, Aleme and Kiptoo battled down to the wire. The East African competitors fought through the homestretch—where Kiptoo kept looking back to assess the distance between himself and his rival—until Aleme sprinted ahead at the last second to claim the victory.

Aleme’s performance follows a breakthrough season, which included a runner-up finish at the 2022 London Marathon in October.

Conner Mantz was the first American to finish after placing sixth in 1:01:12.

Past Greats Return to Racing, While Familiar Faces Make Debuts

In addition to Sisson’s record, there were several other notable performances in the Houston women’s half marathon, including Huddle in her postpartum return to competitive racing. The previous American record-holder finished fifth in 1:10:01 almost nine months after welcoming her daughter. In her 13.1 debut, former 1500-meter specialist and Olympic bronze medalist Jenny Simpson placed ninth in 1:10:35. Also making her debut, Vanessa Fraser finished 13th in 1:11:00. All three had room to spare in achieving the standard to compete at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Three-time Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba also made her highly anticipated return. In the Ethiopian's first race in four years, she finished 16th in 1:11:35.

The 2023 Houston Marathon is set to take place this weekend: Here’s what you need to know

The weather is expected to be a bit warmer this year, reaching the mid 60s on Saturday and the 70s on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of runners are set to participate in the 2023 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston half marathon this weekend.

On Saturday morning, the We Are Houston 5K will began at McKinney & Crawford:

6:30 a.m. — 5K race day packet pick-up opens

7:50 a.m. — Wheelchair start

8 a.m. — Race start

On Sunday, the Chevron Houston Marathon & Aramco Houston Half Marathon will start at Congress & Fannin:

6:50 a.m. — Marathon and half marathon wheelchair start

7:01 a.m. — Marathon and half marathon start

During a press conference on Friday, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said hundreds of law enforcement will be present during the race.

“Please, if you see something, say something,” Finner said.

The weather is expected to be a bit warmer this year, reaching the mid 60s on Saturday and the 70s on Sunday, according to Space City Weather.

Dr. Lars Thestrup, the medical director of the Houston Marathon Committee urged runners to use their best judgement during the race and to take it slow, if needed.

“This is may not be the year to attempt for a personal best on your half or your full marathon. You may want to take it a little slower,” Thestrup said. “The key is respect your limits and listen to your body.”

Thestrup said a total of 22 aid stations will be set up along the course, along with 20 medical bike teams in case of emergencies. He added that several METRO buses will be located along the route to serve as cooling stations for runners.

Edward Cheserek to battle Shura Kitata in Houston Half Marathon

Kenya’s Edward Cheserek will be the star to watch at the 51st edition of the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon that will be held on January 15, 2023 in Houston, Texas, United States.

The 28 year-old comes to this race with the fourth fastest time on paper of 1:00.03 that he got last year in Valencia Half marathon, comes to this race with the fourth fastest time on paper.

After Valencia last fall, I’ve trained harder and I think sub-60 is possible. Houston is known for being a fast course and I want to have a chance with a personal best,” said Cheserek.

Cheserek who is the the 17-time NCAA champion, will battle the 2020 London Marathon champion, Shura Kitata who comes to this race with a life time best of 59:47 that he got at this same event in the same year.

The two will have to get past the 2015 All-African Games Silver medalist, Leul Gebresilase who comes to this race with the fastest time on paper of 59:18 that he got at the 2017 Valencia Half Marathon, where he took the silver medal and the 2018 Mediterranean Games half marathon champion, Mohamed El Aaraby who also comes with a personal best of 59:54 that he got last year at the Meta Time Trials By Asics.

The race organizers have assembled this deep field to chase the race course record of 59:22 that was set ten years ago by the 2016 Rio Olympics marathon silver medalist, Feyisa Lilesa from Ethiopia.

Emily Sisson, Conner Mantz, Jenny Simpson, Tirunesh Dibaba Headline 2023 Aramco Houston Half Marathon

The Houston Marathon Committee announced today the elite athletes who will chase the $10,000 first-place prize in this historically fast race. Elite fields for the Chevron Houston Marathon which is held simultaneously on Sunday, January 15, will be announced tomorrow.

American records in the half marathon and marathon were set in Houston last year, but by the end of 2022, Emily Sisson had broken them both. Houston will be Sisson’s first race since running 2:18:29 at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October, shattering Keira D’Amato’s record by 43 seconds. Earlier in the year, her 1:07:11 performance in Indianapolis shaved four seconds off Sara Hall’s half marathon record.

“I have really enjoyed racing here in the past and am excited to start my 2023 season in Houston,” said Sisson who finished fifth in the 2019 Aramco Houston Half Marathon. “I felt good coming out of Chicago and am really looking forward to another opportunity to race.”

Sisson will have to contend with one of the greatest distance runners of all time as Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia makes a return to competition after a more than four-year hiatus. The three-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion has not raced since 2018 but says after giving birth to a second child in 2019 and then battling COVID-19, she is ready to add another chapter to her storied career.

“Houston is a famous race and my training has been going well,” said Dibaba, the 2017 Chicago Marathon Champion. “It seemed like the best way to test myself and see what could be next.”

Other top contenders in the women’s half marathon elite field include 2021 Berlin Marathon runner-up Hiwot Gebrekidan of Ethiopia and 2022 World Championship Marathon fourth-place finisher Nazret Weldu of Eritrea. Dom Scott will attempt to break the South African half marathon record of 1:06:44, after a 3rd place finish in Houston last year. The top Americans include 28-time U.S. Champion Molly Huddle who set the then-American record here in 2018, as well as World Champion and Olympic Bronze Medalist Jenny Simpson who will make her half marathon debut.

“All of the racers I am learning from speak so highly of their experience with the Aramco Houston Half Marathon,” said Simpson. “It’s the perfect place for me to make my half marathon debut because the timing, course and organization are so well tested.”

In the men’s race, Edward Cheserek of Kenya, known to fans as “King Ches,” will look to trade in his crown for a king-sized belt buckle. Cheserek is coming off a 1:00:13 half marathon personal best in Valencia last month. “After Valencia this fall, I’ve trained harder and think sub-60 is possible,” said Cheserek, a 17-time NCAA Champion at the University of Oregon. “Houston is known for being a fast course and I want to have a chance at a personal best.”

Cheserek will face off against 2019 champion Shura Kitata of Ethiopia who lines up for his fourth Aramco Houston Half Marathon. With career marathon victories in London, Frankfurt and Rome, Kitata says he “feels home and comfortable in Houston.”

Other contenders to watch are Ethiopia’s Leul Gebresilase Aleme, runner up at last year’s London Marathon, and 2020 Olympian Mohamed El Aaraby of Morocco. The top American in the field is Conner Mantz of Utah. Mantz, the 2020 and 2021 NCAA Cross Country Champion at BYU, made his much-anticipated marathon debut in Chicago last October running 2:08:16, the fastest debut ever by an American-born runner.

Houston-native Frank Lara will return for a second consecutive year. Lara, a former Gatorade Texas High School Runner of the Year, was the top American finisher in the marathon last year. This year he competes in the half marathon.

The HMC is the only organizer to host two World Athletic Gold Label events simultaneously, which are Sunday’s Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon. These two races will have over 27,000 registrants, with an additional 6,000 registrants in the We Are Houston 5K presented by Aramco and Chevron, held on Saturday, January 14.

“Whether you are an elite athlete or a new runner, our committee is dedicated to hosting your individual pursuits with the utmost care and respect for the extraordinary efforts made to toe the start line with us,” said Wade Morehead, Executive Director of the Houston Marathon Committee.

The Aramco Houston Half Marathon and Chevron Houston Marathon will be broadcast on ABC13 from 7 a.m.-10 a.m., on Sunday, January 15 with a race day recap at 10:35 p.m. Joining ABC13’s Greg Bailey and Gina Gaston as expert commentator will be Des Linden, the 2018 Boston Marathon winner and 50K world-record holder. Linden made the first of her two U.S. Olympic Marathon teams in Houston in 2012. The trio will be joined by long-time analyst and Rice University cross country coach Jon Warren.

Run to redemption: Austin marathoner Mitch Ammons has won the race of life, too

When Austin’s Mitch Ammons qualified for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials at the California International Marathon on Dec. 4 in Sacramento people asked him what college he had run for. His answer was, “I didn’t.”

“Qualifying for the Olympic trials marathon without a collegiate running background? Almost unheard of,” said Ammons' coach, Jeff Cunningham.

Ammons, 33, played football and ran track as a high school freshman at Dallas Bishop Lynch, even popping a speedy 4-minute, 50-second mile. But then he quit sports. He pretty much quit everything.

“That’s when drugs kicked in,” said Ammons. “I was hanging out with the wrong crowd.”

Ironically, Ammons went on to attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2008, an NCAA Division I distance running powerhouse. But he never thought about making the track or cross-country team, not even as a walk-on. Instead he partied, he said, escalating his marijuana habit to opioids.

“It was a slow progression,” Ammons said. “I went to the University of Arkansas to party. I started using Oxycontin my freshman year there and I loved it. It quickly became an addiction.

“I clearly remember the first time I had withdrawals,” he said. “I thought I had the flu, and of course took more Oxycontin and that fixed it. At that point I understood I was addicted. Oxycontin turned to heroin along with meth, because heroin was cheaper. I switched from pills and smoking it and started shooting up as a sophomore.”

Like many addicts, Ammons was in out and out of rehab — in his case, six times. He’d always relapse, sometimes the same day he got out. “I’d even try to smuggle drugs in to rehab,” Ammons said. “It’s amazing how much it takes over the survival part of the brain.”

But something finally clicked that sixth time at a rehab center in Kerrville, and when Ammons moved to Austin in 2015, that marked the beginning of his sobriety. Still, he wasn’t exactly in good shape. “I was a two-pack a day smoker and ate junk food and didn’t exercise at all,” he said.

But in January 2018, he joined Gilbert’s Gazelles, a local running program coached by nationally renowned Gilbert Tuhabonye. The long-lost spark of a budding high school miler — all but extinguished — caught fire. His path to redemption was clear.

“That was the beginning of my running journey,” said Ammons, who is an Austin real estate agent. “Gilbert said, ‘I don’t think you realize how good you are.’ He believed in me.”

Ammons got serious about his running a year later, and sought out Cunningham, who coaches a group of top-tier runners in Austin. It didn’t take long before he began hitting notable times, starting with a time of 1 hour, 7 minutes, 38 seconds at the 2019 Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth, Minn.

“You can measure an athlete’s metrics in a lab and make predictions regarding their potential. But that does not tell the whole story,” Cunningham said. “Mitch has the ability to work through discomfort and to endure pain — the essence of distance running. He’s as tough as they come.”

In Oct. 2021 Ammons ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:23:56 — placing 24th in a world major race. He followed that with a win at the 2021 BMW Dallas Half Marathon in 1:06:42 and lowered his half-marathon time still further a few months later, posting a 1:05:28 at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in January of this year.

“That showed me I could probably break 2:20 (in the marathon),” said Ammons, who by then had his eye on an Olympic marathon qualifying time.

“It turned out Mitch had a fever during the Aramco Half,” Cunningham said. “He had appendicitis, and a few days later was in the hospital having an emergency appendectomy. That epitomizes everything he is as a competitor. His ability to endure pain is off the charts. I was concerned about his health but impressed nonetheless.”

Under the watchful eye of Cunningham, Ammons built up to running 110 miles a week, training with top area runners David Fuentes and Ronan O’Shea. The 2024 Olympic marathon trials qualifying time is 2:18:00 or better, a one-minute drop from the 2020 standard of 2:19:00. But Ammons was ready.

“As a runner you don’t really know your potential until a race clicks, and then the confidence starts to compound,” said Fuentes, a two-time Olympic marathon trials runner and the 2022 Statesman Capitol 10,000 champ. “Mitch has been training with some of the best runners in Austin, and he’s flourished as a result. It’s been a remarkable progression.”

“My coach gave me a very different buildup from previous ones, focusing on tempo runs,” Ammons said. “I nailed every workout. On one 21-mile training run, I averaged 5:08 per mile for the second half of it. Headed into CIM, I was confident I could run a good race.”

At the California International Marathon, Ammons made it through the halfway mark in 1:08.30 and then he said he picked it up. "It hurt, but I tired to get every bit out of my legs that I could," he said.

And that’s exactly what he did. Seven years after going sober, Ammons crossed the finish line at CIM in 2:16:48, qualifying for the Olympic trials in Orlando that are scheduled for Feb. 3, 2024. To date, only 106 men have met the standard, including another area runner Will Nation, former Cedar Park High School runner Parker Stinson and former Vista Ridge High runner Zachary Ornelas.

“It took a couple of days for it to really sink in," Ammons said. "It was pretty emotional to think of where I was seven years ago and where I am now. I’m living a life beyond my wildest dreams. I never, ever thought I’d be where I am today.

"I attribute running to all the positive changes in my life: my friends, my job, everything," he continued. “Running has taught me so much. You could say I wasted a large amount of my young adult life. But I have no regrets. I probably wouldn’t be who I am today without those struggles.”

Kenyan John Korir ditches the Houston 21km for Boston Marathon

Houston half marathon runner-up John Korir will not defend his title on January 15, 2023 citing inadequate preparations.

Instead, Korir said he is focusing on the Boston Marathon, set for April 23 next year, where he will run alongside world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and Chicago Marathon champion Benson Kipruto.

“I feel like I have not done enough training to compete in Houston. I had a few issues I needed to handle but now my eyes are set for Boston,” said the newly-wed Korir.

“My target is to finish on the podium in Boston," Korir said, adding that he hopes to leave a mark on his debut of the city.

The two-time Los Angeles Marathon champion said he has just resumed training and committing to run in January would be hasty.

“My training will focus on hill running since Boston is a very hilly course, Korir said.

And following successful outings on American soil, Korir is hoping to extend his prowess.

At the 2022 Armaco Houston Half Marathon, Korir clocked 1:00:27 behind winner Milkesa Tolosa of Ethiopia (1:00:24).

He also won the 2021 and 2022 Los Angeles Marathon editions, clocking respective times of 2:12:49 and 2:09:08.

In his Chicago Marathon debut this year, Korir timed 2:05:01 for third, behind winner Benson Kipruto (2:04:24) and Ethiopia's Seifa Tura (2:04:49).

Kenyan Jhon Korir sets target ahead of next year's Houston Half Marathon

Houston Half Marathon runners-up John Korir is determined to lower his personal best in the Armaco Houston Half Marathon scheduled for January 15 next year.

Korir clocked 1:00:27 at this year's race, behind winner Milkesa Tolosa of Ethiopia, who timed 1:00:24.

“My target is to run sub-1 hour as I also chase the top spot,” said Korir.

Korir said the weather in Houston was a major setback towards his quest for the title and is hopeful of better conditions this time around.

"I'm hopeful of a good performance now that I know what to expect in Houston in terms of the weather," he said.  

Korir, who trains in Eldoret, said he has achieved his targets during his sessions and all that is left is to translate this onto a competitive situation.

“I have been working on my fitness as well as speed training. I feel I have made some progress compared to when I started my training,” Korir said, adding that the weather conditions at his training base have favoured him.

“I do not like training during hot seasons since I am allergic to dust and may likely contract an infection,” added the two-time Los Angeles Marathon winner.

He won the American race in 2021 and 2022, clocking respective  times of 2:12:49 and 2:09:08.

In his Chicago Marathon debut this year, Korir timed 2:05:01 for third, behind winner Benson Kipruto (2:04:24) and Ethiopia's Seifa Tura (2:04:49).

Korir, who looks up to his elder brother — former Boston Marathon champion Wesley Korir — revealed he developed his interest in running when he was in Class Three.

Wesley, an Olympian and former Cherangany Constituency Member of Parliament, won the 2012 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:12:40.

In conclusion, Korir said his target is to break into the top-three in world marathon running in the next five years.

Chepngeno, Tanui lead star-studded field for Boston Half Marathon

Vicoty Chepngeno and Josphat Tanui head the line-up for the elite field for the Boston  Half Marathon set for November 13.

Chepngeno, who is the 2022 Aramco Houston Half Marathon champion, heads the list of fastest female athletes with a personal best time of 1:05:03.

Chepngeno has competed in a couple of half marathons since the year began including Istanbul in March, where she placed fourth in 1:06:58.

Ethiopia’s Bosena Mulatie lines up as the second fastest in the field with a PB of 1:05:46 posted at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in February, where he wound up fifth.

Also to watch will be another Ethiopian, Hiwot Gebrekidan, who placed fifth in 2:19:10 at the recent Tokyo Marathon. Gebrekidan also finished fourth at the Great North Run in 1:07:22.

Great Britain’s Jess Piasecki and USA’s Molly Huddle are among the top 10 fastest women and will be competing for top honours.

Piasecki and Molly have personal best times of 1:07:20 and 1:07:25 respectively. Other Kenyan women in the race include Cynthia Jerotich (1:06:04), Viola Chepngeno (1:06:48), Vivian Chepkirui (1:08:02) and Mary Munanu (1:11:56).

In the men’s category, Tanui heads the field with a personal best of 59:22, which he posted at the 2017 Ústi nad Lábem Half Marathon top place second.

Another Kenyan, Shadrack Kimining is the second fastest with a time of 59:27. Kimining placed second (1:00:34) at this year’s Rimi Riga Half Marathon back in May.

The Ethiopian duo of Lelisa Desisa and Tsegay Kidanu will also be in the race with the aim of spoiling the Kenyans’ party.

Desisa, the 2019 World Marathon champion, is the third fastest in the field with a PB time of 59:30. On the other hand, Kidanu has a PB of 59:52.  Mexico’s Jose Santana with a personal best of 1:01:11 will also be in contention.

Other Kenyans in the field include Geoffrey Koech (59:36), James Ngandu (1:01:28), Dennis Kipkosgei (1:03:23) and debutant Vincent Kiprop.

Lelisa Desisa, Vicoty Chepngeno, Molly Seidel, Molly Huddle Running 2022 BAA Half

The Boston Athletic Association today announced the professional field for the 2022 B.A.A. Half Marathon, presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, to be held on Sunday, November 13.

Two-time Boston Marathon champions Lelisa Desisa and Daniel Romanchuk return, while 2021 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Molly Seidel and two-time Olympian Molly Huddle lead the American charge. Seven women who’ve run under 1:07:30 and nine men with lifetime bests under 1:01:30 will compete on the roads of Boston.

The B.A.A. Half Marathon will be run for the first time in-person since 2019, beginning and finishing in Boston’s Franklin Park. The event begins at 8:00 a.m. with a field of nearly 9,000 participants. Open registration is already sold out, however entries remain available through presenting sponsor Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund.

Seidel, a former Boston resident, will make her B.A.A. Half Marathon debut as she returns to racing. The 2:24:42 marathoner and former NCAA champion at Notre Dame finished fifth at the 2018 B.A.A. 5K and 10th at the 2019 B.A.A. 10K.

Huddle, a 28-time USA national champion, will race at the B.A.A. Half eight years after placing third in 2014. B.A.A. High Performance team member Erika Kemp –a two-time USA national champion at 20K and 15K— will also compete among the strong American field, fresh off a win at the Boston 10K for Women on October 8.

“The B.A.A. Half Marathon is always a fun fall event, and I’m eager to race again through Boston with hopes of returning to the podium,” said Huddle.

The international women’s contingent is led by 2022 Houston Half Marathon winner Vicoty Chepngeno of Kenya, who owns the fastest lifetime best (1:05:03), though is followed closely by Ethiopia’s Bosena Mulatie (1:05:46). Mulatie was eighth at the 2022 World Athletics Championships 10,000m in Oregon over the summer. Other athletes with world championships experience include Kenya’s Margaret Wangari and Cynthia Limo, and British duo Jess Piasecki and Calli Thackery. Wangari earned a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Marathon, and placed fifth at the B.A.A. Half Marathon in 2018. Limo is the 2016 World Half Marathon Championships silver medalist.

On the men’s side, Desisa, winner of the Boston Marathon in 2013 and 2015, owns a pair of B.A.A. Half Marathon titles from 2013 and 2014, as well as the event record (1:00:34). The Ethiopian fan favorite is also the event record holder (1:00:34), and considers Boston his second home.

“Boston holds a special place in my heart and I’m excited to return again to race in the B.A.A. Half Marathon, where I have had great success before,” said Desisa. “I hope to run very well again!”

Kenyans Josphat Tanui (59:22) and Shadrack Kimining (59:27) have the two fastest personal bests in the field, which includes five men who have run under one hour for the half marathon. Geoffrey Koech, the 2022 Cardiff Half winner, and Ethiopian Tsegay Kidanu, 11th at the Copenhagen Half Marathon, are competing, as is Morocco’s Zouhair Talbi, the third-place finisher at the 2022 B.A.A. 5K. The top American entrant is Teshome Mekonen, who formerly represented Ethiopia internationally, has run 1:00:02, and won this year’s Brooklyn Half.

Daniel Romanchuk, two-time Boston Marathon wheelchair division champion and 2019 B.A.A. 10K winner, looks to win his first B.A.A. Half title, joined by Boston Marathon top-20 finishers Hermin Garic, Dustin Stallberg and Velera Jacob Allen. Jenna Fesemyer and Yen Hoang, both 2021 Paralympians for Team USA, will race as well. Fesemyer won this year’s B.A.A. 5K.

“I’m very much looking forward to racing the B.A.A. Half Marathon for the first time,” said Romanchuk, who finished runner-up at the Chicago Marathon on October 9. “I’ve raced the Boston Marathon, B.A.A. 5K, and B.A.A. 10K, and am excited to add the Half Marathon. I can’t wait to be back in Boston.”

For the first time, the B.A.A. Half Marathon course will be World Para Athletics certified, eligible for world or national records to be set by Para athletes. Marko Cheseto Lemtukei (T62), Brian Reynolds (T62), and Jacky Hunt-Broersma (T64) each have Boston Marathon Para Athletics Divisions experience and are eligible for prize money.

Father-daughter duo sets world record for fastest combined half-marathon

Marie-Ange Brumelot and her father, Nicolas Brumelot, of Paris, France, set a Guinness World Record for the fastest half marathon run by a parent and child at the RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon last weekend in New York City. The daughter ran 1:13:46 to place third overall, while Nicolas ran 1:31:46 to win the men’s 55 to 60 age category, for a cumulative time of 2:45:32.

The duo smashed the old record held by Clare Bovill and Jonathan Scott from Cambridge, U.K., of 2:58:35, by 13 minutes. Jonathan and his mother, Clare, previously went after this record in March 2020 to have a common goal to train together and share the joy they get from running.

Two rules apply for this record: the first, applicants must provide documents proving the child-parent relationship, and the child must be over 16. 

Marie-Ange was selected to represent France at the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, but did not end up racing. Her father, 59, is a longtime runner who recently completed his 46th marathon at the 2022 Hamburg Marathon, where he ran a new personal best time of 3:20:49. 

Marie-Ange grew up in Paris but now lives and trains in Shokan, N.Y., near the Catskill Mountains. The 29-year-old distance runner set a personal best at the Brooklyn Half, breaking her previous best of 1:14:18 from the 2020 Houston Half Marathon.

2022 Carlsbad 5000 Announces Its Elite Field

eigning champion and 17-time NCAA All-American Edward Cheserek headlines men’s race; Olympians Kim Conley and Dom Scott lead women’s elite fields

36-Year Southern California Running Tradition Returns with over 6,000 runners on Sunday, May 22

One by one, America’s most famous road races have returned after being waylaid by COVID. The Boston Marathon, Peachtree Road Race, New York City Marathon.

Familiar images unfolded. Runners excitedly talked to friends and strangers in corrals. Spectators delivering high-fives. Medals draped around necks.

Bolder Boulder, Bay to Breakers, the Los Angeles Marathon.

Come Sunday, the last of the United States’ iconic road races returns after a three-year pandemic hiatus when the Carlsbad 5000 presented by National University celebrates its 36th running. Over 6,000 runners and joggers will enjoy the splash of the surf and clean salt air along the traffic-free Pacific Coast Highway 101, then sipping brews in the Pizza Port Beer Garden.

“I’m excited to return to the Carlsbad 5000,” said reigning champion Ed Cheserek of Kenya. “Last time in 2019 was a lot of fun and after everything our running community has been through since then, I’m really looking forward to being back at the beach in sunny Southern California.”

The Carlsbad 5000 is renowned as “The World’s Fastest 5K” and the moniker was earned.

Sixteen world records have been set on the seaside course, plus a slew of national records and age group bests. Olympic gold medalists Tirunesh Dibaba, Meseret Defar and Eliud Kipchoge have run Carlsbad.

So have U.S. Olympic medalists Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi. Keflezighi, the San Diego High product and only male runner in history to win the Boston and New York City marathons, plus an Olympic medal, is now co-owner of the race.

“The San Diego community is very proud of the fact that Carlsbad hosts the world’s most famous 5k race,” said San Diego Track Club coach Paul Greer, a former sub-4-minute miler. “We’re proud of the race. And local runners are endeared by the fact that Meb is involved in the event because he’s one of our own.”

Many people deserve credit for the Carlsbad 5000’s success. Chief among them are Tim Murphy, the race’s creator, Steve Scott, the former American mile record holder who designed the course, and the late Mike Long, the beloved man who built relationships with African athletes and recruited them.

When the race was first held in 1986, the 10K and marathon were road racing’s popular distances. The 5K was considered a casual fun run.

“That’s how innovative Tim was,” said Scott. “He was going to start something when there wasn’t anything there.”

Scott not only designed the course. He won the first three races.

Another plus for The ’Bad: the race fell perfectly on the calendar, with the elite runners being in peak fitness after running the World Cross Country Championships.

“The world records were produced by the quality of the fields and the expectations of running fast,” said road racing historian and announcer Toni Reavis.

It may have been three years since the Carlsbad 5000 was held live (there was a virtual race in 2020), but all the charms will be back Sunday. The custom beer garden IPAs, the ocean views, the left-hand, downhill turn onto Carlsbad Village Drive, and the sprint to the finish.

The race’s official charity is the Lucky Duck Foundation, a local non-profit dedicated to fighting homelessness in San Diego County.

“Homelessness is San Diego’s number one social issue right now, and I couldn’t be prouder to partner with Lucky Duck Foundation as an official charity of the Carlsbad 5000,” said Keflezighi.

As in the past, the Carlsbad 5000 will feature a series of age-group races, starting with the Men’s Masters at 6:55 am, the Women’s Masters at 8:00 am, Open Men at 9:15 am, Open Women at 10:08 am, Junior Carlsbad Kids Mile at 11:20 am, Junior Carlsbad Kids Half-Mile at 12:13 pm, Elite Men at 1:20 pm and Elite Women at 1:23 pm.

The morning-long races create a cheering audience for the pros.

“That’s the other thing that made the elites run fast,” said Reavis. “The crowds.”

So after a three-year pause, the Carlsbad 5000 is back. For why the race continues to maintain its iconic appeal, Reavis said, “It’s those ocean breezes, the lapping waves, the laid-back lifestyle. It is perfect for this little Southern California town which gets transformed into a race course.”

For a complete race day schedule and more, visit Carsbad5000.com.

— Elite Rosters Follow —

Elite Men

Bib Number , Name, Country, Career Highlight, Birthday

1. Edward Cheserek, KENYA, Defending Champion . 17x NCAA Champion, 02/02/1994

2. Kasey Knevelbaad, USA – Flagstaff, 13:24.98 5000M(i) Personal Best,  09/02/1996

3. Reid Buchanan, USA – Mammoth, 2019 Pan American Games 10,000m Silver, 02/03/1993

4. Jose Santana Marin, MEXICO, 2019 Pan American Marathon Silver Medal, 09/03/1989

5. Eben Mosip, KENYA, Road 5k Debut, 12/31/2002

6. James Hunt, GREAT BRITAIN, 4-time Welsh Champion, 04/28/1996

7. Dennis Kipkosgei, Kenya, 2021 Philadelphia Broad Street 10 Miler Champion, 12/20/1994

8. Sean Robertson, USA, Butler University Athlete, 09/16/2001

9. Tate Schienbein, USA – Portland, 2013 U.S. Junior Steeplechase Champion, 04/04/1994

10. Hosava Kretzmann, USA – Flagstaff, AZ, 14:15 5000m PB, 09/02/1994

11. Dylan Belles, USA – Flagstaff, AZ, 2X Olympic Trials Qualifier, 05/16/1993

12. Dylan Marx, USA, San Diego’s Fastest Marathoner, 01/14/1992

13. Steven Martinez, USA – Chula Vista, 2x U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifier, 09/15/1994

14. Spencer Johnson, USA – San Diego,  14:39.09 (2022 Oxy Distance Carnival), 03/20/1995

15. August Pappas, USA – San Diego, 14:05 PB, Big Ten Indoor Track Champs, 04/10/1993

16. Dillon Breen, USA – San Diego, 14:43 Virtual Carlsbad 2020, 09/01/1992

17. Dante Capone, USA – San Diego, Phd Student at Scripps Institute, 11/07/1996

18. Jack Bruce, AUSTRALIA, 13:28.57 5000m Best on Track, 08/31/1994

Elite Women

Bib Number , Name, Country, Career, Highlight, Birthday

20. Kim Conley, USA, One of America’s best 5000m runners, 03/14/1986

21. Dominique Scott, SOUTH AFRICA, Two-time Olympian, 05/24/1992

22. Grace Barnett, USA – Mammoth, Silver at 2021 USATF 5k Championships, 05/29/1995

23. Carina Viljoen SOUTH AFRICA, 5k Road Racing Debut, 04/15/1997

24. Ayla Granados, USA – Castro Valley, 15:53 Personal best, 09/18/1991

25. Biruktayit Degefa, ETHIOPIA, 2022 Crescent City 10k Champion, 09/09/1990

26. Andrea Ramirez Limon, MEXICO, 2021 National 10000m Champion, 11/05/1992

27. Claire Green, USA – San Francisco, NCAA All-American, 05/12/1996

28. Caren Maiyo, KENYA, 5k Road Debut. 7th At 2022 Houston Half Marathon, 04/17/1997

29. Nina Zarina, RUSSIA, California resident, 3rd at the 2021 LA Marathon, 03/17/1987

30. Emily Gallin, USA – Malibu, Finished 4th 2022 LA Marathon, 10/30/1984

31. Lauren Floris, – USA – Oak Park, 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifier, 07/07/1990

32. Sara Mostatabi, USA – Los Angeles, 09/27/1993

33. Ashley Maton, – USA – Toledo,    16.37 PR at U.S. Road 5k Championships, 11/20/1993

34. Judy Cherotich. KENYA, 16:50 PR

35. Lindsey Sickler, USA – Reno, 16:59 PR, 09/05/1997

36. Megan Cunningham, USA – Flagstaff, 15:53 Track Best 5000M, 03/01/1995

37. Jeannette Mathieu, USA – San Francisco, 2020 Olympic Trials Qualifier, 04/19/1990

38. Bre Guzman, USA – San Diego, 17:37 5k/ 36:00 Road 10k PR, 10/30/1992

39. Aubrey Martin, USA – San Diego, 17:33 5k /1:19 Half Personal Best, 10/10/1997

40. Chloe Gustafson, USA – San Diego, Division II – NCAA All-American, 11/10/1992

41. Sammi Groce, USA – San Diego, 2021 Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Winner, 04/29/1994

42. Kristi Gayagoy, USA – San Diego, 17:06 PR

43. Annie Roberts, USA – San Diego, 16:58 5k, 07/10/1996

44. Alexa Yatauro, USA – San Diego, 17:40 5k, 10/18/1995

45. Jessica Watychowicz, USA – Colorado Springs, 15:47.51 5000m Track PB, 02/27/1991

About the Carlsbad 5000

The Carlsbad 5000 annually attracts amateur, competitive and professional runners from around the world. The 36th running of the iconic race will take place on the weekend of May 21-22, 2021. The inaugural 1986 event helped establish the 5K as a standard road running distance, and today, the 5K is the most popular distance in the United States. Throughout its history, the Carlsbad 5000 has seen 16 World records and eight U.S. records, as well as numerous national and age group marks.  Race day begins at 7:00 am with the Masters Men (40 years old and over), the first of seven races to take place on Sunday. The “Party by the Sea” gets started as soon as the first runners cross the finish line with participants 21 and older celebrating in the Pizza Port beer garden with two complimentary craft brews and runners of all ages rocking out to live music on the streets of the Carlsbad Village. Further information about the Carlsbad 5000 can be found online at Carlsbad5000.com and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Peres Jepchirchir, Senbere Teferi and Sara Hall Headline 50th New York Mini 10K

With one month to go until the 50th anniversary of the Mastercard® New York Mini 10K, New York Road Runners (NYRR) announced today that Olympic, TCS New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir, United Airlines NYC Half champion and 5K world-record holder Senbere Teferi, and two-time Mastercard® New York Mini 10K champion Sara Hall will headline the professional athlete field for this year’s race.

The Mini 10K, which began in 1972 as the first women-only road race known as the Crazylegs Mini Marathon, has gone on to garner more than 200,000 total finishers to date. Former NYRR President Fred Lebow named the race after the miniskirt, which back then was in vogue. A total of 72 women finished the first race, and three weeks later, Title IX was signed into law, guaranteeing girls and women the right to participate in school sports and creating new opportunities for generations of female athletes.

Jepchirchir, of Kenya, is the only athlete – male or female – to have won the Olympic, New York City, and Boston marathons, and is also a two-time world champion in the half marathon. Last year, she won gold in the Tokyo Olympic marathon by 16 seconds, and then four months later ran the third-fastest time in TCS New York City Marathon history (2:22:39) to win the race in her U.S. debut. In April, in a back-and-forth race that came down to the final mile, she fended off Ethiopian Ababel Yeshaneh to take the Boston Marathon title in her debut in the event and will now be racing the Mastercard® New York Mini 10K for the first time.

“I have heard about the Mini and how it is a wonderful celebration of women and running,” Jepchirchir said. “It is very important to me that I use my success to inspire young women and girls coming after me. It is very special to be able to return to New York City after my marathon victories in New York and Boston to be a part of the 50th anniversary of this race.”

Teferi, of Ethiopia, is a two-time Olympian, two-time world championships silver medalist, and the 5K world-record holder. Earlier this year, she set both the course and event records at the United Airlines NYC Half, finishing in a time of 1:07:35 to win the race. She followed that up a month later by winning the B.A.A. 5K in a course-record time of 14:49. In her NYRR race debut, Teferi won the 2019 UAE Healthy Kidney 10K with a time of 30:59, breaking the previous course record set in 2014 by Joyce Chepkirui.

“My first race in the United States was in New York City in 2019, and I broke the event record at the Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park,” Teferi said. “Then, earlier this spring, I broke the event record at the United Airlines NYC Half, again crossing the finish line in Central Park. I cannot promise another record on June 11, but I am happy to return to Central Park for my first Mini 10K, and look forward to be joined by thousands of my sisters-in-running.”

Hall, of the United States, who has 10 national titles to her name, ran what was then an American record-breaking 1:07:15 half marathon at the Houston Half Marathon in January. She was the runner-up at the 2020 London Marathon and that same year clocked what was then the second-fastest marathon ever by an American woman at The Marathon Project. She is the two-time reigning champion of the Mastercard® New York Mini 10K, having won the 2019 event that also served as the USATF 10 km championships and then following it up in 2021 with another victory.

“My three races at the Mini have all aligned with big important milestones in the history of the event: The first time hosting the USA Championships in 2019, the first big NYRR race coming out of the pandemic in 2021, and now the 50th anniversary in 2022,” Hall said. “I’m very aware that many of the opportunities I’ve had as an athlete are because of the groundbreaking work of the women who came before me, and of my duty to inspire the young women who will follow me, including my daughters. I will do everything I can to honor all of them with another top finish on June 11.”

The Mastercard® New York Mini 10K will offer $45,000 in total prize money, including $10,000 to the winner of the open division and $2,500 to the winner of the wheelchair division. The professional athlete races will be streamed live on USATF.TV beginning at 7:40 a.m. ET. Mastercard® will serve as title sponsor of the event for the second time, and as part of its on-going partnership with NYRR will also serve as the presenting sponsor of professional women’s athlete field.

To mark the 50th anniversary, several legends and pioneers of the sport will also be joining the Mastercard® New York Mini 10K race weekend festivities this year, including Jacki Marsh-Dixon, the first Mini 10K champion; Kathrine Switzer, the 1974 New York City Marathon champion who also ran the first Mini 10K; Deena Kastor, Olympic medalist and 2004 Mini 10K champion; and Lynn Blackstone, Pat Barrett, Jane Muhrcke, and Nina Kuscsik, four of the “Six Who Sat” at the 1972 New York City Marathon. Both Switzer and Blackstone will run the Mini 10K again this year.

Fast times at the Meta Time Trials in Malaga

Eilish McColgan has set a UK 5km record of 14:45 at the ASICS META:TIME:TRIALS in Malaga.

She bettered her own 5km mark of 14:48 from the UAE back in February and Paula Radcliffe’s 14:51, set at Hyde Park in 2003, while McColgan is also close behind Sifan Hassan’s European 5km record of 14:44.

Fast times were the target and many were achieved at Sunday's META: TIME : TRIALS by ASICS, a World Athletics Label event in Malaga, with Ethiopia’s Tsegay Kidanu quickest in the men’s 10km with 27:14 and Britain’s Eilish McColgan among the national record-breakers in the 5km.

The event was specially organised to showcase the new METASPEED™+ Series footwear and McColgan, the 2018 European 5000m silver medallist, was among the athletes to go quicker than ever before. She led the women’s 5km in 14:45 to improve the official British record and finish ahead of Kenya’s Naomi Chepngeno with 14:57.

In the men’s race, Olympic finalist Mohamed Katir ran 13:20 to miss Jimmy Gressier’s European record by just two seconds. Felix Bour of France was second in 13:41.

Kidanu impressed on his 10km road race debut, running 27:14 after passing half way in 13:42. That saw the 2019 world U20 cross country fifth-place finisher win by nine seconds ahead of Kenya’s Boniface Kibiwott with 27:23.

Kenya’s Vicoty Chepngeno, winner of the Houston Half Marathon in January, was this time racing over 10km and claimed top spot in 31:39, 16 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Sarah Lahti with 31:55.

Three athletes dipped under the hour in the men’s half marathon, led by Morocco’s Olympic marathon 11th place finisher Mohamed Reda El Aaraby with 59:54.

That saw him break the hour barrier for the first time, improving on his previous best of 1:00:17 set when finishing 13th the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia.

Kenya’s Wilfred Kimitei and Alfred Kipchirchir were just two seconds behind him, both clocking 59:56, while their compatriot Vincent Ngetich clocked exactly an hour.

Ethiopia’s Yeshi Kalayu Chekole claimed a clear win in the women’s half marathon, running a PB of 1:07:30 to finish 38 seconds ahead of Kenya’s Sharon Kemboi with 1:08:08.

Hellen Obiri goes for another PB and possibly the Istanbul course record

Hellen Obiri is back in Istanbul where strong elite fields were assembled for the N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon on Sunday.

Both course records could be threatened at the Bosporus. Six women are on the start list with personal bests of sub 67:00 and Kenya’s reigning World Cross Country Champion and 5,000 m World Champion is the fastest of them: Hellen Obiri has improved to 64:22 earlier this year.

Fellow-Kenyans Daniel Mateiko and Rodgers Kwemoi head the men’s start list with personal bests of 58:26 and 58:30 respectively. The N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon produced a world record a year ago when Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich won the race in 64:02. 

A year ago the N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon was one of very few international races that went ahead during the pandemic. 4,000 runners participated under strict hygiene regulations. Now the organizers of the N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon are proud to announce that the race bounced back: Including races at shorter distances a record number of over 10,000 runners were registered for the 17th edition. Around 8,000 of them will run the half marathon.Turkey’s biggest spring road race is a World Athletics Elite Label Road Race. 

“We have worked for a long time to improve our 16 year-old course and to make it one of the most historic and enjoyable courses in the world, as well as one of the fastest. We succeeded in developing the N Kolay Istanbul Half Marathon further and even had a world record here a year ago,“ said Renay Onur, the Race Director of the event which is staged by Spor Istanbul.

With regard to Sunday’s race he said: “Our elite field is of high quality. With two men having recently achieved sub-59 times, we have a chance that our course record will fall. On the women’s side, I am happy that Hellen Obiri is back. I believe she can go even faster since weather conditions seem to be fine on Sunday. We invite all sport lovers to enjoy this race.“

Hellen Obiri is ready for another very fast race. "If weather conditions and pacemaking are good then I will try to break my personal best. Whenever I come to such a race it is my goal to run well and improve my time,“ said the 32 year-old who improved to 64:22 when she was second in the Ras Al Khaimah half marathon in the United Arab Emirates in February. Since then she has been training in the Ngong hills near Nairobi.

“I am in much better form now than I was before Ras Al Khaimah,“ said Hellen Obiri. Asked about the course record, which is also the Kenyan record, she answered: “The course record will be a tough challenge. But we have a very strong field, so we will definitely give it a try.“ 

Hellen Obiri will indeed face very strong competition in Istanbul. Fellow-Kenyan Vicoty Chepngeno has an outstanding half marathon record. She ran 14 half marathons since 2018 and won eleven of them.

The 28 year-old is undefeated in her past six races at the distance and improved to a world-class time of 65:03 when she took the Houston half marathon in January.

Ethiopian trio Tsehay Gemechu (PB: 65:08), Nigsti Haftu (66:17), Bekelech Gudeta (66:54) and Turkey’s multiple European long distance champion Yasemin Can (66:20) are the other women who have already run below 67:00. Tsehay Gemechu has a very strong half marathon record as well.

She has won four of her five races and is the reigning champion of the Copenhagen half marathon where she clocked her PB last year.

In the men’s race there will be an attack on the course record, which was established last year by Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie with 59:35.

“We will both be going for the course record and a personal best,“ said Daniel Mateiko and Rodgers Kwemoi, who are training partners and belong to the group of Eliud Kipchoge based at Kaptagat. Mateiko improved by almost a full minute to 58:26 when he was third in Valencia in 2021 while Kwemoi was runner-up in Ras Al Khaimah in February with a strong PB of 58:30.

“I am now in better form than I was in Ras Al Khaimah,“ said Rodgers Kwemoi.

Two other runners in the field have already broken the one hour barrier: Kenyans Josphat Tanui and Edmond Kipngetich have personal bests of 59:22 and 59:41 respectively.

Elite runners with personal bests

Men

Daniel Mateiko KEN 58:26

Rodgers Kwemoi KEN 58:30

Josphat Tanui KEN 59:22

Edmond Kipngetich KEN 59:41

Hillary Kipchumba KEN 60:01

Vestus Chemjor KEN 60:47

Moses Too KEN 60:56

Philimon Kiptoo KEN 61:47

Daniel Kiprotich KEN 62:09

Gerald Vincent KEN 62:27

Ramazan Özdemir TUR 63:10

Women

Hellen Obiri KEN 64:22

Vicoty Chepngeno KEN 65:03

Tsehay Gemechu ETH 65:08

Nigsti Haftu ETH 66:17

Yasemin Can TUR 66:20

Bekelech Gudeta ETH 66:54

Pauline Esikon KEN 67:15

Stella Rutto ROU 67:45

Ayinadis Teshome ETH 68:18

Daisy Kimeli KEN 68:34

Medhin Gebreslassie ETH 68:38

Ludwina Chepngetich KEN 70:34

Moira Stewartova CZE 71:08

Fatma Karasu TUR 71:30

Kristina Hendel CRO 71:34

Ethiopia’s Askale Merachi and Kelkile Gezahegn will defend their titles at the 50th Chevron Houston Marathon, while Kenya’s Vicoty Chepngeno and Shadrack Korir lead the entries for the Aramco Half

Merachi won in Houston in 2020 in 2:23:29, finishing more than a minute ahead of the rest of the field. She went on to win the Taipei Marathon later that year in 2:28:31, but hasn’t raced since then, so her form going into this weekend’s race is relatively untested.

She will face stiff competition from compatriot Biruktayit Eshetu Degefa, a three-time winner in Houston who is aiming to become the race’s first four-time winner. She finished runner-up to Merachi in 2020, clocking 2:24:47. Her PB stands at 2:22:40, set in Toronto in 2019, while her fastest time in Houston is the 2:23:28 she ran to win three years ago.

Two-time Chicago Marathon winner Atsede Baysa has the fastest PB of the field with 2:22:03. A sub-2:25 time may be required to make the podium on Sunday, but the last time the 34-year-old Ethiopian bettered that barrier was back in 2012.

Ethiopian women have won the past 14 editions of the Houston Marathon, but that streak could be under threat on Sunday as Keira D’Amato aims to become the first US woman to win the Houston Marathon since 2005.

The 37-year-old, who took a complete break from running between 2009 and 2016, has been racking up impressive performances on the roads in recent years. She set a marathon best of 2:22:56 and a North American 10-mile record of 51:23 in 2020, finished fourth at last year’s Chicago Marathon, and clocked a half marathon PB of 1:07:55 last month. If conditions are good, the course record of 2:23:14 – set by Alemitu Abera in 2012 – could be under threat.

Ethiopian marathon debutante Tsige Haileslase and USA’s Robert Groner, who finished sixth at the 2019 World Championships, are among the other contenders.

Gezahegn, the defending men’s champion, won with 2:08:36 two years ago and finished two minutes clear of his nearest rivals. His only race since then was the 2021 Boston Marathon, where he finished 15th in 2:12:37. A 2:05:56 runner at his best, the 25-year-old will be keen to use this weekend’s race as an opportunity for redemption.

If John Langat can reproduce his form from 2019, when he won in Eindhoven in a PB of 2:07:11, he could contend for the victory on Sunday. Japan’s Kenta Uchida will also be a formidable opponent. He has a lifetime best of 2:08:12 and will be keen to earn his first marathon victory.

Bahrain’s Abdi Abdo, Ethiopia’s 2008 world indoor 3000m champion Tariku Bekele and US marathon debutant Frank Lara are others to watch out for.

Vicoty Chepngeno will start as the favourite for the Houston Half Marathon, held concurrently with the marathon. The 28-year-old Kenyan has an impressive record in US road races; she has won nine of her past 10 half marathons on US roads, and her lifetime best of 1:07:22 was set in her most recent outing over the distance, in Philadelphia two months ago. Despite her extensive racing experience, though, this will be Chepngeno’s first Houston Half Marathon.

Compatriot Monicah Ngige, meanwhile, will be making her third Houston Half Marathon appearance. The 28-year-old set her PB of 1:07:29 there in 2019. More recently, she finished fourth at the Boston Marathon in October on her debut over the distance, clocking 2:25:32.

Sara Hall leads the US entrants. The 38-year-old has focused more on the marathon in recent years, achieving podium places at the 2020 London Marathon and the 2021 Chicago Marathon, also clocking a PB of 2:20:32 in between those outings. But she has also won her two most recent half marathons, setting a PB of 1:08:18 in 2020.

Shadrack Kimining Korir returns to Houston after finishing third in 2020 in a personal best of 59:27, just two seconds shy of the winner. His most recent outing was at the Lisbon Half Marathon in October, where he finished fifth in 1:02:42.

Wilfred Kimitei also competed in Lisbon towards the end of last year, albeit in a different event to the one where Korir raced, and finished 11th in 1:00:03 – just 23 seconds shy of the PB he set in Ras Al Khaimah in 2018.

Ethiopia’s Milkesa Mengesha also heads to Houston in good form. The 2019 world U20 cross-country champion, still only 21, finished ahead of Kimitei in Lisbon in November, clocking a PB of 59:48 in what was just his second half marathon to date. Earlier in 2021 he set a 5000m PB of 12:58.28 and finished 10th in the Olympic final at that distance.

Kenya’s Raymond Magut, who clocked a PB of 1:00:00 in Herzogenaurach in September, should also be a strong contender, along with Ethiopia’s Bayelign Teshager and Eritrea’s Tsegay Tuemay.

Elite fields

WOMEN Half marathon

Vicoty Chepngeno (KEN) 1:07:22

Monicah Ngige (KEN) 1:07:29

Sara Hall (USA) 1:08:58

Caren Maiyo (KEN) 1:09:20

Sarah Pagano (USA) 1:09:41

Emily Durgin (USA) 1:09:47

Maegan Krifchin (USA) 1:09:51

Andrea Ramirez Limon (MEX) 1:10:20

Dominique Scott (ZAF) 1:10:42

Elaina Tabb (USA) 1:10:44

Nell Rojas (USA) 1:10:45

Julia Griffey (USA) 1:11:04

Emily Setlack (CAN) 1:11:41

Dakotah Lindwurm (USA) 1:11:43

Maor Tiyouri (ISR) 1:11:50

Paige Stoner (USA) 1:11:53

Jessica Judd (GBR) debut

Fiona O’Keeffe (USA) debut

Maddie Alm (USA) debut

Marathon

Atsede Baysa (ETH) 2:22:03

Biruktayit Eshetu Degefa (ETH) 2:22:40

Keira D’Amato (USA) 2:22:56

Askale Merachi (ETH) 2:23:29

Roberta Groner (USA) 2:29:09

Kathya Mirell Garcia Barrios (MEX) 2:34:46

Militsa Mircheva (BGR) 2:35:03

Tsige Haileslase (ETH) debut

Maggie Montoya (USA) debut

Emily Kearney (GBR) debut

Alice Wright (GBR) debut

MEN Half marathon

Shadrack Kimining Korir (KEN) 59:27

Wilfred Kimitei (KEN) 59:40

Milkesa Mengesha (ETH) 59:48

Raymond Magut (KEN) 1:00:00

Bayelign Teshager (ETH) 1:00:31

Tsegay Tuemay (ERI) 1:00:50

Patrick Tiernan (AUS) 1:01:22

Reed Fischer (USA) 1:01:37

Rory Linkletter (CAN) 1:01:44

Reid Buchanan (USA) 1:01:45

Colin Mickow (USA) 1:01:47

Matt Llano (USA) 1:01:47

Harvey Nelson (USA) 1:01:48

John Raneri (USA) 1:01:51

Brogan Austin (USA) 1:01:52

Zouhair Talbi (MAR) 1:02:00

Kirubel Erassa (USA) debut

Marathon

Kelkile Gezahegn (ETH) 2:05:56

John Langat (KEN) 2:07:11

Kenta Uchida (JPN) 2:08:12

Abdi Abdo (BRN) 2:08:32

Elisha Barno (KEN) 2:09:32

Tariku Bekele (KEN) 2:09:33

Augustus Maiyo (USA) 2:10:47

Jesus Arturo Esparza (MEX) 2:11:04

Birhanu Kemal Dare (ETH) 2:12:21

Tyler Jermann (USA) 2:12:40

Frank Lara (USA) debut

James Ngandu (KEN) debut

Luke Caldwell (GBR) debut

Canadian Ben Flanagan is after one thing at the Houston Half Marathon, I have my eye on the Canadian half-marathon record of 61:28, he says

The 2022 Houston Half Marathon is set to take place this Sunday, drawing many of the world’s top elite to the event. In the field is Kitchener, Ont’s., Ben Flanagan, who ended his 2021 season on a winning note, looking to continue his string of solid performances into the new year. He is heading to this weekend’s half marathon with one thing on his mind: Jeff Schiebler’s 23-year-old Canadian half-marathon record of 61:28.

“I am looking forward to competing,” Flanagan says. “The plan is to run conservatively to tackle the Canadian record. It’s engraved in my head.” The 21.1 km distance isn’t foreign for the former NCAA 10,000m champion. In 2020, he ran 1:03:19 to win his half-marathon debut in South Carolina. His debut time was the 10th fastest ever by a Canadian male, and on Sunday he has the chance to better his result on one of the fastest courses in North America.

“My results at the Scotiabank Waterfront 10K and Manchester Road Race gave me a lot of confidence in the fall,” Flanagan says. He won both races skillfully, breaking away from his competition in the mid-stages of the race and not looking back.

Flanagan made his decision to run Houston in late November. “The timing of this race fit in perfectly in my training,” Flanagan says. “I had a lot of strength built up after Manchester, so we focused on building endurance over the past month and a half.”

Although Flanagan has shown a lot of success on the roads, he isn’t quite done with the track yet. He will be running a few 5,000m and 10,000m races this spring to secure a spot on Team Canada at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Ore.

When asked about when he was going to step up to the marathon, Flanagan mentioned he would love the opportunity to represent Canada in the marathon at the Paris Olympics. “Stepping up to the marathon this year might be a stretch, but I want to give myself a chance to qualify for Paris.”

Flanagan won’t be the only Canadian elite in the race Sunday. Alberta native Rory Linkletter, who was second at the California International Marathon a month ago, is in search of another personal best in Houston. In 2020, Linkletter ran 61:44, only 16 seconds off the Canadian record.

In the women’s elite field, Calgary’s Emily Setlack returns to Houston following the 1:11:40 PB she ran in 2020.

Defending champions will return to mark 50th anniversary of Chevron Houston Marathon

With 194,039 finishers having run 5,083,822 miles since the first Chevron Houston Marathon, the race will mark its 50th anniversary on January 16.

“When 113 runners lined up in 1972 to run loops in Memorial Park, no one would have predicted the marathon would have a Golden Anniversary at all, much less with a field of 28,000 celebrating on the streets of Houston,” said Houston Marathon Committee Executive Director Wade Morehead. “Led by some of the top marathoners and half marathoners in the world, we’re looking forward to a great day in the history of the race and the city.”

Returning to defend their Chevron Houston Marathon titles from 2020 – only a virtual race was held last year because of Covid – are Askale Merachi and Kelkile Gezahegn, both of Ethiopia. Making her seventh-consecutive appearance will be three-time champion Biruktayit Eshetu Degefa, who will renew her quest to become the race’s first four-time winner after finishing as runner-up to Merachi last year.

Among the Americans worth watching are Keira D’Amato and Frank Lara. D’Amato comes to Houston with a personal best of 2:22:56 and could challenge the 10-year-old course record of 2:23:14, while Lara – the 2014 Gatorade Boys’ High School Cross Country Runner of the Year out of Strake Jesuit College Prep – returns home to Houston to make his marathon debut.

Dan Green, the first winner in 1972, will serve as honorary starter, along with other members of the race’s Hall of Fame. In addition to marking its 50th anniversary, the race will serve as the first qualifier for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon, with its newly-toughened standards of 2:18 for men and 2:37 for women.

The Aramco Houston Half Marathon, run concurrently with the marathon, will be headlined by Kenya’s Vicoty Chepngeno and American Sara Hall. Chepngeno set her personal best of 1:07:22 in winning the Philadelphia Half Marathon last November, while Hall is the sixth-fastest woman in U.S. history at the half marathon and second-fastest in the marathon. On the men’s side, the fastest time in the field belongs to Shadrack Kimining Korir, who returns to Houston after finishing third here in 2020 in a personal best of 59:27.

This year, the elite fields for the two races will feature athletes representing 17 countries: the U.S., Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, Great Britain, Japan, Bulgaria, Guatemala, Peru, Eritrea, South Africa, Morocco, New Zealand, Canada, Israel and Australia.

The Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon will be broadcast on ABC-13 from 7 a.m.-10 a.m., with a race day recap at 10:35 p.m. Joining ABC-13’s Greg Bailey and Gina Gaston as expert commentator will be Des Linden, the 2018 Boston Marathon winner and 50K world-record holder. Linden made the first of her two U.S. Olympic Marathon teams in Houston in 2012.

Stephen Scullion and Paul Pollock ready for big guns in Antrim Coast Half Marathon

Tokyo Olympians Stephen Scullion and Paul Pollock will spearhead the local challenge against a star-studded international field in the Antrim Coast Half Marathon on Sunday.

Sir Mo Farah - who won the 5,000m and 10,000m double at both London 2012 and Rio 2016 before missing out on Tokyo qualification - is unable to defend the inaugural title he won last year in a time of one hour and 27 seconds due to injury but will be at the event as race starter and will also carry out media and ambassadorial roles. Sir Mo said: "I can't wait to be involved this time around, especially with the kids race.

I aim to be back for another crack at the race next year." Big-race organiser James McIlroy - an 800m semi-finalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and who roomed with Sir Mo on Team GB trips - feels it will be one of the strongest half marathon line-ups ever seen on these islands.

"It promises to be one of the greatest half marathons ever assembled in the UK or Ireland with 53 men and 25 women taking to the start. With three full national teams confirmed, and runners from Africa, America, Europe, UK and Ireland, this year’s first ever World Athletics event in the province promises to be one of the leading road races in the world for 2021," said the Larne man, grandson of Belfast Celtic legend Sid McIlroy.

In addition to boasting 11 Olympians, headlining the men’s race will be Ethiopian record holder Jemal Yimer. Yimer won his last half marathon outing at the Houston half marathon in 2020 and has also achieved the fastest ever debut half marathon in 59:00 achieved in R’as al Khaimah in the UAE back in 2019.

He will be joined by countryman Tesfahun Akalnew, who has a personal best of 59:22, previously finished second in the African Games and comes to the Antrim Coast with strong runs in 2020, finishing fifth in the Barcelona Half Marathon and sixth in New Delhi. Completing the African trio will be Shadrack Kimining, winner of the 2016 Cardiff Half Marathon and in Gothenburg in 2018 and 2019.

Leading the UK and Ireland challenge will be Tokyo Olympians Scullion, Pollock and Marc Scott, the latter the two-time European record holder and second fastest all-time Briton behind Sir Mo over 10,000m. On Sunday Scott will seek to become only the second Briton to break the 60-minute barrier.

Belfast ace Scullion finish fourth in last year’s race on the way to setting a new Northern Ireland record of 61.12. Pollock, fresh from his second Olympics, will make his debut on the fast scenic course and should also threaten the top positions.

Barcelona Olympian and multiple World record holder Tommy Hughes will have huge crowd support as he makes his latest bid on the Vet +60 World record, which he smashed at last year’s race in a time of 71.09. McIlroy added: "With full strength teams from Ireland, England and Northern Ireland, we may well see the first ever sub-60-minute half marathon in Ireland." The women’s race is headlined by Ethiopian sensation Yalemzerf Yehualaw.

The 22-year-old finished third in last year’s World Half Marathon Championship after tripping on the finishers mat, and has targeted the Antrim Coast's fast course since lthe inaugural event last September. The elite race starts at 8.00am in Larne with the mass participation event - cancelled last year due to the Covid pandemic - starting at 9.30am. There will be live coverage on the BBC.

SARA HALL RUNS FASTEST HALF MARATHON BY AMERICAN THIS YEAR, MISSES RECORD ATTEMPT

Hall clocks 68:44 in return to Cottage Grove as part of buildup for Chicago Marathon in October, now boasts three career-sub 69 performances

Sara Hall has produced two of the strongest half marathon performances in U.S. history during the past 13 months in Cottage Grove, Ore., but just like last year, Saturday’s effort along the Row River bike path came up short of her pursuit of the American record.

Hall, representing ASICS, clocked 68 minutes, 44 seconds, after she ascended to the No. 6 all-time U.S. competitor last year by running 68:18 along the Harms Park boat ramp parking lot in Cottage Grove.

Hall, who became the fastest American and No. 19 performer in the world this year, now has three career marks under 69 minutes. She also ran 68:58 at the Houston Half Marathon last year.

Molly Huddle still holds the record of 67:25 from the 2018 Houston Half Marathon.

Hall, 38, joined Shalane Flanagan, Jordan Hasay, Emily Sisson and Huddle as the only American women with at least three career sub-69 performances on record-eligible courses.

Hall used Saturday’s opportunity as part of her preparation for the Chicago Marathon, scheduled for Oct. 10.

Hall, who ran the second-fastest performance by a U.S. female with her 2:20:32 effort in December at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Ariz., will be again taking aim at the 2006 American record of 2:19:36 held by Deena Kastor.

2022 registration for Chevron Houston Marathon opens to all runners

Registration for the 2022 Houston Marathon Weekend of Events opens to all runners today, June 2.

The in-person race for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Chevron Houston Marathon and the 21st annual Aramco Houston Half Marathon will take place Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The We Are Houston 5K will take place on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.

“Chevron is thrilled to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Houston Marathon alongside runners, volunteers, city officials and our own employees,” said Margaret Cooper, General Manager, Chevron Corporate Affairs, in a statement. “We look forward to seeing participants in January to commemorate this important milestone and the Chevron Houston Marathon’s incredible impact on our community.”

In addition to the in-person events, virtual registration options will also be offered at $75 for the marathon and $65 for the half marathon. Registration for the virtual events also open on June 2. The 2022 Virtual Houston Marathon Running Events will take place over race weekend Friday, Jan. 14 – Monday, Jan. 17.

“We are grateful for the continued support from our running community throughout the past year and look forward to safely welcoming back our runners to the road in Houston,” said Wade Morehead, Executive Director of the Houston Marathon Committee, in a statement.

“Through thoughtful planning alongside our city partners, we are confident that 2022 will be an event year that successfully celebrates the history and camaraderie of our runners, volunteers, race partners, and spectators - all who have made this event possible for the past 49 years.”

Additional details for the 2022 Houston Marathon can be found at chevronhoustonmarathon.com.

Chevron Houston Marathon opens registration for 2022

The Houston Marathon Committee (HMC) will open its first window of registration – Guaranteed Registration – for the 2022 Houston Marathon Weekend of Events this Saturday, May 1, with Open Registration available to all runners on June 2, 2021.

The in-person race for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Chevron Houston Marathon and the 21st annual Aramco Houston Half Marathon will take place Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, with the We Are Houston 5K presented by Aramco and Chevron on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.

“We are grateful for the continued support from our running community throughout the past year and look forward to safely welcoming back our runners to the road in Houston,” said Wade Morehead, Executive Director of the Houston Marathon Committee. “Through thoughtful planning alongside our city partners, we are confident that 2022 will be an event year that successfully celebrates the history and camaraderie of our runners, volunteers, race partners, and spectators – all who have made this event possible for the past 49 years.”

Louisiana Marathon winner Alex Hebert surprises himself after foot injury

Neither a two-month delay to the Louisiana Marathon nor a foot injury could stop Alex Hebert of Thibodaux from winning the 10th Louisiana Marathon men's race Sunday in downtown Baton Rouge.

Hebert, 28, ran a time of 2:27:16 to cross the finish line first.

“I went into it differently than I normally do,” he said. “I came off a pretty serious foot injury about a month and a half ago and I called it quits. I was not going to do it (marathon). About a week ago, I thought I will roll with it.”

Lydia McRae of Jacksonville, Florida, set the pace for the women with a time of 2:47:34.

Jarrett Leblanc of Jennings set a Louisiana Marathon record in the half-marathon with a time of 1:05:04.

“I had my eye on this race for a little while,” he said. “I normally run the Houston Half Marathon, but I was glad I was able to stay here at home and run. I actually wanted to go a little faster today, but I did not have it. I am glad to have my name on paper for the record.”

Leblanc, 30, is a doctor and has spent the last year helping fight COVID-19 in southwest Louisiana.

“I took about six months off of running,” he said. “I worked full time and overtime in the hospitals in Jennings and Lafayette during the pandemic. Working 55-60 hours a week, it is tough to train.”

The women’s half-marathon was won by Kristin Wenstrom of Covington with a time of 1:25:16.

“I felt really good today; the weather was perfect,” she said. “I was smiling through the whole thing. I had a lot of fun today.”

The event, which usually takes place in January but was postponed because of coronavirus concerns, finished smoothly after precautions were set up to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Canadian Justin Kent and Natasha Wodak continue stellar seasons ahead of December marathon

Despite having limited opportunities to race this year, Justin Kent and Natasha Wodak have had great seasons. The pair of B.C. runners have both run half-marathon PBs in 2020, they took the wins in the virtual Canadian 10K Championships in July and they’re both headed to Arizona in December to compete in the Marathon Project with some of the top marathoners in North America.

Over the weekend, they added another couple of big results to their lists of accomplishments for 2020, with Kent breaking the Canadian 20,000m track record in 1:01:01 on Saturday and Wodak coming close to the national half-marathon record with a 1:10:01 showing at the Fierce Half Marathon in B.C. on Sunday. 

Kent’s 20,000m record 

Kent’s 20,000m best is his first Canadian record. Tom Howard was the previous record-holder in the 20,000m with a time of 1:01:10, which he set in 1974. Kent’s result works out to an average pace of 3:03 per kilometre, and while this was on the track and not the road, the result is proof that he’s in tremendous form with just over a month to go until the Marathon Project, which is set for December 20. The race will be his debut marathon, and he’ll undoubtedly be chasing the Olympic standard of 2:11:30. 

Kent was supposed to run for Team Canada at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Poland in October, but Athletics Canada pulled out of the race just days before it was held due to health and safety concerns. In lieu of the world championships race, he ran a solo half-marathon and set his PB of 62:34. With that result and his shiny new Canadian record, Kent will be a runner to watch at the Marathon Project and beyond in 2021. ⁣⁣

Wodak’s near miss 

Earlier in 2020, Wodak became the first Canadian woman to run sub-1:10 in the half-marathon when she ran a 1:09:41 at the Houston Half Marathon in January to set the national record in the event. She only got to enjoy the record for two weeks, though, because in February, Andrea Seccafien ran 1:09:38 at a race in Japan, which is the current Canadian best. Wodak, who owns the 10,000m national record with a time of 31:41.59, was looking to lower the half-marathon bar once again at the Fierce Half Marathon on Sunday, but she came up just short. Still, her 1:10:01 is the third-fastest time in Canadian history, and if she had run it in any other year, it would have been the national record.

Even though she couldn’t beat Seccafien’s time on Sunday, this result is a good sign for Wodak, and it looks like she is in great form just six weeks out from the Marathon Project. Unlike Kent, Wodak has run a marathon before, but just once — seven years ago when she posted a 2:35:16 at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2013. This is basically her Debut 2.0 at the distance, and based on her last few years of results, it would be safe to bet that she will smash her marathon PB. Wodak will have her eye on the Olympic standard of 2:29:30 in Arizona, and she’ll have dozens of the best road runners in North America to work with as she chases that time. 

Chevron Houston Marathon goes virtual in 2021

In response to the ongoing public health concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Houston Marathon Committee (HMC) announced today that the 49th annual Chevron Houston Marathon and 20th annual Aramco Houston Half Marathon will be held as part of the 2021 Virtual Houston Marathon Running Events.

“The decision to cancel the 2021 Chevron Houston Marathon is incredibly disappointing for everyone, but it is the right course to follow because of the pandemic,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “I know thousands of people from all over the world have trained for this race all year, and they were looking forward to qualifying for other races or beating their personal bests. They can still do that virtually. While the experience may not be the same, know that Houston will be cheering for the participants’ every mile. We are a resilient city, and we are proud of the Houston Marathon.”

The Houston Marathon Committee has been working closely with city and state officials over the past months to align preparations with current guidelines and any foreseeable future framework that may be in place at the time of the event. After thorough review and discussion, HMC in conjunction with these partners have determined to make the difficult decision to transition the traditional in-person events to virtual at this time.

“At this time, we recognize that there are many unknowns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, but the safety and well-being of our runners, volunteers, partners, spectators and local Houston community will always be our top priority,” said Wade Morehead, Executive Director of the Houston Marathon Committee. “While we are unable to celebrate the 2021 event together in the heart of Downtown Houston, we will be cheering for our runners around the world as they participate in a unique virtual race experience, embracing the incredible spirit of our RunHOU community.”

All participants who are currently registered for the 2021 event will be able to opt for the unique 2021 virtual race experience which includes a discounted registration for the Chevron Houston Marathon 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2022; defer their entry to one of the following two years (2022 or 2023); or donate their entry to the 501 c(4) non-profit organization, the Houston Marathon Committee. Participants currently registered for the 2021 Chevron Houston Marathon, Aramco Houston Half Marathon or the We Are Houston 5K presented by Aramco and Chevron will receive detailed email instructions on how to complete their registration selection.

The 2021 virtual event experience will take place over the span of ten days, where runners will have the option to complete their race distance anywhere and anytime between Jan. 8 – 17, 2021. All virtual participants will receive a participant box pre-race filled with sponsor gifts and messages to help them cross the finish line. Finisher items will be mailed post-race within two weeks of Jan. 17, to participants who submit their completed race distance timing information via their participant account.

Registration for the 2021 Virtual Houston Marathon Running Events is currently open.

Keira D’Amato has been selected to represent the USA in the World Half Marathon Championship in Oct. 2020 in Poland

It was a surprising accomplishment, as Keira had been training for the past year for the US Olympic Marathon trials in Atlanta for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

“The race was everything I hoped the Olympic dream would be and as terrible as the marathon can feel,” said D’Amato.

The 35-year-old finished 15th out of 511 women with a time of 2:34.34 (which is 5:42 minutes per mile)!

“To think that 4 years ago, watching the Olympic trials I was pregnant with my daughter Quinn and on the couch 50-plus pounds overweight watching them on TV, thinking I would never be there and just fast forward 4 years later, and somehow I was there in the mix of things and finished 15th, I’ve come a long way,” said D’Amato.

This was the first time Atlanta’s Olympic Cauldron torch has been lit since 1996.

“It was a surreal experience to run through where they hosted the '96 Olympics. Through the course, you run by the Olympic rings and you go by the Centennial Olympic Park," said D’Amato. "Watching the Olympics in '96 as a child, I saw the torch the lit, the torch that day, it hasn’t been lit since the '96 Olympics and it was really cool.”

Unfortunately, Keira’s running time and placement wasn’t fast enough, but she still held her head high and proud as she crossed the finish line.

“When I saw the finish line, everything just hit me like a ton of bricks and I saw the finish line and I started pumping my arms and I was flying down the straightaway and I’m sure people watching realized 'she’s not winning, right, she’s 15th, she’s not making the team, someone should probably tell her,'" said D’Amato. "But I was so proud of the work I had done and that I finished and that I can hold my head up high knowing that I left it all on the course that day.”

Several weeks before the big race in Atlanta, Keira competed in the Houston half marathon to prepare herself for what was in store in Atlanta.

She finished the race 8th with the time of 69:59 and little did she know that race in Houston would change her life.

“I got an email and I didn’t really read it correctly, so I thought they were saying would you been interested, and so I wrote back saying 'Heck, yeah I’m interested, let me know how,' and they wrote back saying, 'maybe you didn’t understand, congratulations: you’ve been selected for the USA team,'” said D’Amato. “Running a half marathon for the US definitely hits my goal for just representing the U.S."

Keira is currently training day and night with the team’s coach and hopes to bring home the Gold.

"Nothing has set in yet, still feels like this wild ride that I’m watching from the sideline or the stadium like I can’t believe this is me,” said D’Amato.

Hitomi Niiya is back from retirement and now is fully focused on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

It is a little hard to fathom, but Hitomi Niiya – potentially one of Japan’s strongest track hopes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – hates running.

The 32-year-old, who blitzed to a Japanese half-marathon record in Houston and is eyeing up a spot on the 10,000m team for this year’s Olympics, says with a smile that running makes her tired and does not remotely compare with her passion for shopping.

However, what Niiya lacks in enthusiasm for the sport, she certainly makes up for in ability and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the diminutive athlete could threaten the podium in Tokyo.

Born in the Okayama Prefecture in the south of the island of Honshu, Niiya was inspired to take up running after watching her compatriot Naoko Takahashi win marathon gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“I did a lot of sports when I was younger,” says Niiya. “My two older brothers played football so I did too, but it was watching Takahashi that inspired me and I joined a club team at junior high school.”

She made quick progress and at the age of 15 her talent was snapped up to attend the Kojyokan High School, one of Japan’s most powerful running schools.

The impact was immediate. At the age of 16 she represented Japan at the 2004 World Cross Country Championships in Brussels. On hilly terrain and thick mud, Niiya performed respectably to finish 19th in the women’s U20 race, helping her country secure team bronze.

However, the Japanese teenager was far from satisfied.

“When I arrived, I thought I could beat the athletes from the other countries,” she says. “But it was after competing in Brussels that I first realized the level of the athletes from the African countries was higher.

“It was also the first event I’d been to without my coach,” she adds. “The experience taught me I needed to be more independent. Running in Brussels acted as motivation to return to the World Cross and run better.”

She was good to her word. Twelve months later she competed at the 2005 World Cross Country Championships in St Galmier and placed 13th. Later that year she gave more evidence of her exciting potential, earning 3000m bronze at the World U18 Championships in 9:10.34 in Marrakech.

“I didn’t expect to win a medal because the Africans are so strong,” she recalls. “I was very proud. Winning bronze and watching the Japanese flag at the medal ceremony was such a happy memory.”

Training at an intensity which she believes puts her on a similar level to the top African athletes, her coach elected to enter Niiya for the Houston Half Marathon in January. Her main intention was to use the event as preparation for her 10,000m ambitions, but she excelled and won the race in 1:06:38 to carve 48 seconds from the Japanese record set by Kayoko Fukushi in 2006.

“My aim was to break the national record and I was really pleased to do so,” she adds.

“My hope is to make the Olympic team,” she explains. “If I do, I will feel a lot of responsibility for a good result. The aim is to win a medal for all the people who have supported me, from my coach, my sponsors and all the people in my life.”

Galen Rupp and Jared Ward, who placed first and third at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon lead the way Saturday, headlining a deep and talented men’s field that brings together the best of the best

The U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon are the second stop on the 2020 USATF Running Circuit. The top three finishers Saturday will represent the United States as the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer. Fans can tune-in for the live broadcast beginning at 12:00pm ET on NBC or NBC Sports Gold, with the men’s race beginning at 12:08pm ET and the women’s race starting at 12:20pm ET. 

While Rupp had to drop out of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October, he still enters Saturday’s race as the prohibitive favorite. Rupp ran the top qualifying mark at the Prague Marathon in 2018, finishing in 2:06:07, while earning fifth at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon that fall in 2:06:21. In addition to earning bronze in the marathon at the Olympic Games in Rio, finishing second at the Boston Marathon in 2017 and winning in Chicago in 2017, Rupp has unmatched big-race experience against the field.

The Portland-based runner recently ran a tune-up half marathon in Arizona, finishing in 1:01:19, proving he’s in excellent shape. Not to be outdone, Ward also has some impressive finishes to his name after finishing third in Los Angeles four years ago.

The Utah-based standout placed sixth at the Olympic Games in Rio and has consistently shown his ability to finish well up the results at major events. 

Ward ran to an eighth-place effort at the Boston Marathon last spring, finishing in 2:09:25, while earning top American status at the TCS New York City Marathon in November with a sixth-place effort. Recently running 1:01:36 at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon and finishing as the top American gives Ward plenty of momentum heading into Atlanta. On paper, Leonard Korir is the next top challenger.

While Korir has only run one marathon, it was a great performance. At the Amsterdam Marathon last fall, Korir ran the second fastest qualifying mark of Saturday’s field, placing 11th overall in 2:07:56, making him the top American performer over the distance in 2019. Along with his success on the USATF Running Circuit, as well as on the track, Korir certainly has the ability to push for the win. Next up is Scott Fauble.

The HOKA ONE ONE Northern Arizona Elite star has proven himself time and time again the past two years, quickly rising the ranks of American marathoning. Fauble placed seventh at the TCS New York City Marathon in 2018, finishing only four seconds behind Ward, while placing as the top American at the Boston Marathon in 2019 in 2:09:08, while beating Ward. 

The trio of Jacob Riley, Jerrell Mock and Parker Stinson are also prime to put themselves in contention over the final miles, pushing for a spot on the Olympic team. The trio finished ninth, tenth and eleventh at the 2019 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Riley has the most experience of the group and his 2:10:53 effort in Chicago rank him as one of the top five fastest in the field Saturday.

Two other notable top contenders are Elkanah Kibet and Shadrack Biwott. Kibet has quietly become one of America’s best marathoners, having placed 11th at the Boston Marathon in 2019 and eighth at the 2018 Boston Marathon. Owning a personal best of 2:11:51, he ranks well in Saturday’s field.

The trio of Matt Llano, Andrew Bumbalough and Chris Derrick are also looking to make an Olympic-sized result Saturday. Bumbalough enters with a 2:10:56 best coming at the 2019 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Another trio of incredibly experienced veterans are also entered and will be looking to make one more push for an Olympic berth. Bernard Lagat, Abdi Abdirahman and Dathan Ritzenhein are all American distance running legends. Each has qualified for at least three Olympics and represented the United States extremely well on the world stage.

Kenya's Fancy Chemutai targets fast time at Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon

Two years ago, Kenya's Fancy Chemutai narrowly missed out on breaking the world record at the Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Half Marathon.

However, as she returns to the United Arab Emirates city for the Al Khaimah Half Marathon on February 21, only one thing rings in her mind, win the race and prepare for her transition to the full marathon later this year.

"I had problems with my leg last year and it was the reason I did not post good results. But I have overcome it and I am looking forward to doing well in at the Al Khaimah Half Marathon next week," said Chemutai on Thursday.

Chemutai came just one second shy of the world record in February 2018 when she won in Ras Al Khaimah in a stunning 64 minutes 52 seconds.

Last year in January, Chemutai ran off an ankle injury to finish second at the Houston Half Marathon in a time of 66:48.

Now she believes she will be strong enough to challenge the course record in UAE, currently held by compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei in 64:52.

Chemutai will, however, be up against a strong challenge from compatriots Brigid Kosgei, who was seventh at 66:49 in 2018, Joan Chelimo (65:04), Peres Jepchirchir (65:06) and debutante Rosemary Wanjiru as well as Ethiopia's reigning world half marathon champion Netsanet Gudeta.

"I have plans to run the full marathon, but the injury slowed me down," she said. "Now that I am back in action, I will discuss with the coaches and see how fast I can move to the marathon." 

Hitomi Niiya wins Houston half marathon

Hitomi Niiya went unchallenged and just crushed it on Sunday morning in the women’s half marathon of the 2020 Chevron Houston Marathon. Niiya covered the 13.1-mile course in 1:06:38, breaking a 13-year-old record for the fastest time by a Japanese women’s half marathon runner.

Jemal Yimer Mekonnen of Ethopia sprinted to the finish line to win the men’s half marathon in :59:24. Mekonnen, who finished second in this race last year, just missed the course record of :59:22.

Mekonnen is the third winner in Houston to finish in under an hour. Mekonnen’s pace was a 4-minute, 32-second mile.

Bernard Kipkorir Ngeno (Kenya) was a second behind Mekonnen, finishing in 59:26. Another second behind at :59:27 was Shadrack Kimining Korir (Kenya).

When Niiya was closing in on the finish, there was no runner within sight of the 31-year-old. She ran the third-fastest time in Houston on this course for women in the half marathon. Niiya, who represented Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics, averaged a 5:05-minute mile.

Brillian Jepkorir Kipkoech (Kenya) ran second in the women’s race in 1:08:08, followed by Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui (Kenya) in 1:08:13. Sara Hall was the top American woman finisher. Hall came in with a time of 1:08:55, for ninth place.

Jemal Yimer, Jared Ward, Sara Hall, Molly huddle and more on Tap at 2020 Houston Half Marathon

Year-in, year-out, no American half marathon assembles better fields than Houston. In addition to being the site of both the men’s (Ryan Hall, 2007) and women’s (Molly Huddle, 2018) American records, there is always a deep list of sub-60:00 men and sub-67:00 women on the start line. Last year, Brigid Kosgei kicked off one of the greatest years in the history of distance running with a win in Houston.

The international fields in Houston, which takes place on Sunday, are strong once again. But from an American perspective, the more intriguing storyline is the impending US Olympic Marathon Trials, to be held in six weeks’ time in Atlanta. Several top Trials contenders — Molly Huddle and Sara Hall on the women’s side, Jared Ward and Shadrack Biwott on the men’s — will be racing on Sunday, and while no result will make or break their Trials hopes, it does give us one last piece of evidence to go on. 

When Huddle debuted in the marathon, placing third in New York in 2016, it looked to be the first step in a journey that would culminate at the 2020 Olympic marathon. Among Americans, Huddle was the queen of all distances between 5k and the half marathon and her grind-it-out style seemed well-suited to marathon success.

Tuliamuk, the 2018 US half marathon champ, is an option, though she’s got progressively slower in Houston the last three years, from 69:58 in 2017 to 71:41 in 2018 to 72:03 last year. She’ll need to get back to her 2017 form to crack the top two Americans on Sunday.

Katy Jermann (née Moen) and Molly Seidel both ran 70:27 last year, tied for third-fastest in the US. Of the two, Seidel, who in 2015 broke the “Foot Locker curse” to win the the 2015 NCAA XC title, is the more intriguing prospect. Seidel had never run a half before October 2019, but Houston will be her third in three months, and she plans to make her marathon debut at the Trials.

With a 2:09 in Boston and two sixth-place finishes in New York, Jared Ward has been the most consistent American marathoner over the last 18 months. Beating him on Sunday doesn’t guarantee a repeat result next month in Atlanta, but it would be a positive sign for the other Olympic hopefuls in this field.

With a high of 59, the temperature looks great for running on Sunday, though 13 mph winds mean the conditions won’t be perfect. Still, with the talent on hand in Houston, there should be competitive races up front. In the men’s race, there’s no clear favorite.

Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer (58:33), the fourth-fastest man ever, was a close second last year after taking a wrong turn late in the race. He went on to run 59:09 in Valencia in October, where he finished two seconds behind Kenya’s Bernard Ngeno, also entered in Houston. Andamlak Belihu had a terrific 2019 (26:53/59:10, 5th at Worlds in 10k), while the last two Houston champs, Shura Kitata of Ethiopia and Jake Robertson of New Zealand, return as well.